I have been writing for long that GROWTH and Development have to do Nothing with the Excluded Indigenous Aborigin communities sufering from continuous Holocaust! Now, Under Post Modern Manusmriti LPG Mafia Rule,8 Indian cos emerged among world's 500 largest corporations!On whose cost?Education and Health services do take TOLL! Home Budget is most inflicted by these services. I am a diabetic Patient and have to take medicines regularly. Whenever I visit the Medicine shop, prices are revised Upward so often. Bill gates and Buffet visit have opened up Pharmaceutical sector while a Populist like Mamata Bannerjee who ended Marxist Rule in bengal leading Anti Capitalist Development Peasants` Movement, depend on Private Investing for Education and Health! FICCI Ex Secretary Amit Mitra is the Finance Minister who is guided by NO Other than the Great Neo Liberal Montek Singh Ahluwalia!Market Forces have taken over Bengal and Ministry being quite IRRELEVANT, Manmohan`s Extraconstitutional Neoliberal team including Narayan Murthy and Sam Pitroda has taken over Governace and Policy making. Buddha was INNUNDATED by the Economists like AMARTYA SEN, Vivek Oberoy, Abhiru Sarkar, Surjeet Marjit who happen to be in Mamata Team with Entire Civil society and Intelligentsia along with Meda crossing Fences!In UP the Reforms in Bengal have to be replicated as soon as the Hindi heart land is WON back by the Crown Prince as Nitish Kumar in Bihar has opened all the Floodgates of Reforms.Mayawati has NOT learnt anything from the Bengal Marxists.Kapil Sibal and Chidambara being DEFENDED at all cost as they are the Main Lietinets of REFORMS beside the Bengali Brahamin Master Mind.If NDA succeeds to topple the UPA Regime supported by Pro US Civil Society Movement and the HIndutva Regimented Gestapo, ECONOMIC Reforms have to EXPEDIATE and it is the Most IMMINENT Danger of which the Marxists as well as AMBEDKARITES seem to IGNORANT! No wonder, Back to Back boosting Infrstucture, FDI FII Raj, LPG Mafia Rule, Service Oriented Growth based on EXCLUSION and Ethnic Cleansing, Knowledge Economy, Now, No move to restrict FDI in pharmaceutical, declares Montek Singh Ahluwalia!With private sector spending on exploration of commodities like gold and diamonds pegged at an insufficient $1 billion over the next five years, a Mines Ministry panel has favoured opening up all mineral-bearing areas , barring sensitive zones, to entrepreneurs.
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - SIX HUNDRED EIGHTY ONE
Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/
http://basantipurtimes.blogspot.com/
I have been writing for long that GROWTH and Development have to do Nothing with the Excluded Indigenous Aborigin communities sufering from continuous Holocaust! Now, Under Post Modern Manusmriti LPG Mafia Rule,8 Indian cos emerged among world's 500 largest corporations!On whose cost?Education and Health services do take TOLL! Home Budget is most inflicted by these services. I am a diabetic Patient and have to take medicines regularly.
Whenever I visit the Medicine shop, prices are revised Upward so often. Bill gates and Buffet visit have opened up Pharmaceutical sector while a Populist like Mamata Bannerjee who ended Marxist Rule in bengal leading Anti Capitalist Development Peasants` Movement, depend on Private Investing for Education and Health!
FICCI Ex Secretary Amit Mitra is the Finance Minister who is guided by NO Other than the Great Neo Liberal Montek Singh Ahluwalia!Market Forces have taken over Bengal and Ministry being quite IRRELEVANT, Manmohan`s Extraconstitutional Neoliberal team including Narayan Murthy and Sam Pitroda has taken over Governace and Policy making.
Buddha was INNUNDATED by the Economists like AMARTYA SEN, Vivek Oberoy, Abhiru Sarkar, Surjeet Marjit who happen to be in Mamata Team with Entire Civil society and Intelligentsia along with Meda crossing Fences!
In UP the Reforms in Bengal have to be replicated as soon as the Hindi heart land is WON back by the Crown Prince as Nitish Kumar in Bihar has opened all the Floodgates of Reforms.Mayawati has NOT learnt anything from the Bengal Marxists.
Kapil Sibal and Chidambara being DEFENDED at all cost as they are the Main Lietinets of REFORMS beside the Bengali Brahamin Master Mind.
If NDA succeeds to topple the UPA Regime supported by Pro US Civil Society Movement and the HIndutva Regimented Gestapo, ECONOMIC Reforms have to EXPEDIATE and it is the Most IMMINENT Danger of which the Marxists as well as AMBEDKARITES seem to IGNORANT!
No wonder, Back to Back boosting Infrstucture, FDI FII Raj, LPG Mafia Rule, Service Oriented Growth based on EXCLUSION and Ethnic Cleansing, Knowledge Economy, Now, No move to restrict FDI in pharmaceutical, declares Montek Singh Ahluwalia!
India Plan Panel: Expert Group to Examine Merger, Buyouts of Drug Firms
Wall Street Journal - Mukesh Jagota - 7 hours agoNEW DELHI-- India's Planning Commission, the top government think tank, plans to set up an expert group to examine cross-border mergers and acquisitions of Indian pharmaceutical companies, the panel's deputy ...
No move to restrict FDI in pharmaceutical: Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Economic Times - 5 hours ago... of existing 100 per cent foreign owned pharmaceutical companies or to prevent green field investment by foreign companies," Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at the India-US High Technology Cooperation meeting. ...
Inflation likely to come down by December: Montek
Times of India - Jul 10, 2011Noting that inflationary pressure is not just in India, he said that it is a big news around the world and added that he would like it to "go down to 6 per cent". He, however, refused to give a timeline for that. The overall inflation in May stood at ...
Don't have expectations from Cabinet reshuffle: Montek
Indian Express - 11 hours agoThe Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has rejected media speculations that he may get the Commerce and Industry portfolio, replacing incumbent Anand Sharma in the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle. ...
Economic growth a must for poverty reduction: Montek
iNewsOne - 4 hours agoNew Delhi, July 11 (IANS) Although poverty in India had decreased in the last two decades, the access to opportunities still remained restricted for many people, Planning Commission Deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said Monday. ...
'Fuel prices to spur inflation for short-term'
Indian Express - 15 hours agoThe recent hike in the prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG may lead to a short-term spike in headline inflation but it will come down towards the end of the year, Plan panel deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Sunday....
Fuel Prices Increase To Push Up Inflation For Short-Term
RTT News - 11 hours ago(RTTNews) - Plan panel Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia Sunday said in New Delhi that the recent increase in the prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG might lead to a short-term increase in headline inflation. He, however, hoped that the inflation ...
Inflation to cool off by year-end, says Montek
mydigitalfc.com - Jul 10, 2011By KR Sudhaman Jul 10 2011 , New Delhi been stubbornly high for the last two years, has started coming and that it will slowdown further by this year end. "Inflation is coming down, it is a big news around the world. Towards the last quarter the ...
11/07/2011
Supreme Court declines to pass order on PIL against Sibal
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refrained from passing any order on a Public Interest Litigation filed against Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal accusing him of reducing penalty favouring Anil Ambani-headed RCom, saying persons aggrieved can avail remedy under the law.
"No order is required," a bench comprising justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly said while taking on file the affidavit filed by Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) accusing Mr. Sibal of favouring RCom by reducing the penalty from Rs. 650 crore to Rs. 5 crore for alleged violations in the Unified Access Service Licence (UASL) agreement.
"If there is any irregularity allegedly connected whatsoever with telecom, it cannot be linked to the 2G," the bench said.
The bench made the remarks after senior advocate Rohinton Nariman, who appeared for the government in place of Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, replied to a question whether the matter in hand was related to 2G.
"Not at all," replied Nariman.
The bench clarified that "persons aggrieved will be entitled to avail remedy in accordance with the law."
During the hearing when advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for CPIL was pressing for the matter to be investigated as Sibal had taken a unilateral and final decision.
The bench said, "It is open to CBI for investigation. I am not saying anything," adding, "the Minister's decision may be right or may be wrong".
Nariman appeared for the government in place of Solicitor General Gopal Subramaiam who was not seen in the court.
The affidavit had alleged that "Sibal abused his position as Minister to overrule the unanimous view taken by senior DoT officials, including the Telecom Secretary, to benefit a private operator by closing the issue with only a penalty of Rs. 5 crore.
"This abuse of authority by him to benefit Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Infocomm needs a thorough investigation by the CBI," the application said.
However, Sibal rejected the allegations saying he had not favoured anyone and that the penalty imposed was as per the provisions of the agreement between Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) and RCom.
He described Bhushan's affidavit as the "worst case of forum shopping" and accused him of levelling "malicious and defamatory" charges.
Source: PTI
With private sector spending on exploration of commodities like gold and diamonds pegged at an insufficient $1 billion over the next five years, a Mines Ministry panel has favoured opening up all mineral-bearing areas , barring sensitive zones, to entrepreneurs.
The West Bengal government wants Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy as chief mentor of two expert groups on information technology.
A letter has been sent to Narayana Murthy, who is yet to send his confirmation, sources in the know said here.
The two expert groups are to be set up on drawing investment and creating infrastructure for hardware and software respectively.
Sam Pitroda is set to be named chairman of both committees.
West Bengal leader eyes private investment to ease debt
UPI.com - Abhirup Bhunia - Jul 8, 2011The newly elected chief minister of West Bengal, India's fourth most populous state with 91 million residents, hopes private investment will help lift the region out of a $42 billion debt. Mamata Banerjee, the state's ...
India Inc divided over prospects in West Bengal
Economic Times - Jul 3, 2011The jury is still out on whether Banerjee has done the right thing in taking on the Tatas so early, especially since she has shown keenness to invite private capital into the investment-starved state. Some industrialists say Mamata is only honouring ...
Mamata may push West Bengal towards financial disaster
India Today - Anirban Roy - Jul 9, 2011
In insolvent West Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee's populist announcements could push the state towards a bigger financial disaster. After taking over as the CM, Banerjee has launched a series of plans to give 300-year-old Kolkata a modern ...
Mamata Banerjee may visit Maoist-infested region soon
Daily News & Analysis - Jul 8, 2011Place: Kolkata | Agency: PTI After announcing a special package for Junglemahal, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee along with some cabinet colleagues is likely to visit the Maoist-affected area soon, secretariat sources said today. ...
Mamata Banerjee set to release Maoist prisoners
NewsX - Jul 8, 2011Mamata Banerjee's govt is set to release many Maoist prisoners lodged in West Bengal jails. Will this jeopardise the fight against the red ultras? Security experts are cautioning against any hasty move.
Lift ban before we can sit for talks: Maoists to Mamata
Hindustan Times - Jul 8, 2011"West Bengal government should also lift the ban imposed by the Left Front and then sit for talks," Maoist ideologue Varavara Rao told HT on Friday. On Thursday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee extended an olive branch to the ultra lefts calling them ...
Create congenial atmosphere for talks: Interlocutors to Mamata
Times of India - Jul 8, 2011PTI | Jul 8, 2011, 06.49pm IST KOLKATA: A day after Mamata Banerjee extended the olive branch to Maoists and invited them for talks, Maoist interlocutors said that the West Bengal chief minister would first have to create a congenial atmosphere for ...
WB's new name: Readers for Bekaristan, Dadaland!
IBNLive.com - Jul 8, 2011New Delhi: If West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was ever to invite suggestions from people for a change of name for her state, she would have to sift through some very interesting options, sometimes bordering on the outlandish. ...
Sitaram Yechury welcomes Maoists under democratic process
Daily News & Analysis - Jul 8, 2011Place: Kolkata | Agency: PTI CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechuri on Friday said any effort to bring Maoists under the democratic process was welcome, a day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called upon the ultras to lay down arms and ...
Mamata schedules maiden visit to Maoist belt of West Bengal
Hindustan Times - Jul 8, 2011West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee would visit the Maoist dominated districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia next week. This is her first visit to the region after she swept the 34 year old Left Front government and took charge as chief ...
West Bengal to get a new name
IBNLive.com - Jul 7, 2011New Delhi: Just about two months since becoming Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is really shaking things up. So much so that she has even been planning to change the name of the state itself. The new mantra of change is catching up with ...
Junglemahal: Mamata to free 46 prisoners
Indian Express - Jul 7, 2011In another step towards restoration of normalcy in Junglemahal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the first batch of 46 "political prisoners" would be released in a couple of days. She did not disclose the names, ...
Railway ministry will remain with TC, says Mamata
IBNLive.com - Jul 7, 2011PTI | 11:07 PM,Jul 07,2011 Kolkata, Jul 7 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today said that the Railway ministry would remain with her party and the projects announced by her for the state in this year's ...
Mamata Banerjee and her London Dreams
allvoices - Jul 9, 2011By prabirghose One of the promises that Mamata Banerjee had made to her electorate before the assembly elections was that she would make Kolkata into another London if she came to power. Now that she has fulfilled her dreams and occupied the chair of ...
Mamata to release 46 political prisoners
Economic Times - Jul 7, 2011KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday that her government will release 46 prisoners who were arrested in connection with different cases of political violence in the state during the past few years. ...
WB govt always ready for talks: Mamata to Maoists
Times of India - Jul 7, 2011PTI | Jul 7, 2011, 09.03pm IST KOLKATA: A day after Union home minister P Chidamabaram's comment that talks could be held with Maoists in West Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee gave a call to the ultras to lay down arms, saying her government was ...
Marxists-Mamata agree:Name change could be game change
Economic Times - Jul 7, 2011KOLKATA: For perfectly practical reasons, and not so much sentimental ones, West Bengal could be in for a name change. And it's an issue that has finally made the Left Front agree with Mamata Banerjee's cause. Its name starts with "W", the 23rd letter ...
Tagore songs at Kolkata traffic signals soon
NDTV.com - Jul 7, 2011Kolkata: Kolkata is all set to get a makeover, thanks to the Mamata Banerjee government. As part of giving the city a "London type look", the West Bengal government has announced plans to play Rabindranath Tagore's songs at traffic signals. ...
West Bengal set to get new name
Indian Express - Jul 6, 2011The West Bengal Cabinet on Wednesday passed a resolution to change the name of the state. The new name will be decided after consulting all political parties, intellectuals and cross-sections of society. Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh has been asked to ...
Chidambaram backs Mamata on talks with Maoists
Times of India - Jul 6, 2011NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's move to stop anti-naxal operations in the state as a precursor to 'peace talks' with Maoists finds support in Union home minister P Chidambaram, provided there is no violence. ...
Britain keen on helping West Bengal in education, healthcare
The Hindu - Jul 6, 2011
Also present was Finance Minister Amit Mitra and the British Deputy High Commissioner inKolkata, Sanjay Wadvani. Mr. Chatterjee said the British team was assured that the government would provide investors with the best investment-friendly climate so ...
WB govt discusses plan to change state's name
IBNLive.com - Jul 6, 2011PTI Kolkata: The West Bengal cabinet on Wednesday discussed the renaming of the state with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee taking an initiative in this regard. "Primary discussions were held for change in nomenclature of the state," state commerce and ...
There's no safety in numbers
Hindustan Times - Nikhil Raymond Puri - Jul 6, 2011West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced earlier this month that her government would extend recognition to 10000 madrasas in the state. As one would expect, political opponents, including the CPI(M) and the BJP, were quick to criticise her ...
P Chidambaram hints at talks with Maoists in West Bengal
Daily News & Analysis - Jul 6, 2011Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Wednesday there were "suggestions" of talks with Maoists in WestBengal where violence had sharply reduced. Chidambaram said intelligence is still operating, 'but these are select operations'. ...
UK for bigger role in Bengal business sector Minister
Moneycontrol.com - Jul 6, 2011Published on Wed, Jul 06, 2011 at 17:30 | Source : PTI Britain wants to play a greater role in the business sector in West Bengal, British Foreign Office Minister (South Asia) Jeremy Browne said today. Browne, the first European minister to visit the ...
Naxal violence drops in Bengal;suggestion of talks:Chidambaram
IBNLive.com - Jul 6, 2011PTI | 03:07 PM,Jul 06,2011 New Delhi, Jul 6 (PTI) The Centre today said Maoists violence has come down significantly in West Bengal and there are suggestions that peace talks can be held with the extremists. "The DGP (of West Bengal) told us that the ...
In Mamata's Bengal, Maoists are regrouping; Centre worried
Daily News & Analysis - Santanu Banerjee - Jul 5, 2011A top West Midnapore district police officer told this reporter, "We all know that the left wing extremists have made a huge ideological investment over the years and are not likely to give up pursuing its outcome.'' Apparently, this leaves little time ...
Bangladesh delegation meets Mamata
Times of India - Jul 5, 2011KOLKATA: Since the deal will effectively be between Bengal on the Indian side and Bangladesh, the Centre has decided to involve state chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the process, just as it had done during the historic Ganga water-sharing accord that ...
Red rage: City for middle path
Times of India - Jul 5, 2011That is the unambiguous advice to the new Mamata Banerjee government from a majority of Kolkata residents. Responding in overwhelming numbers to the TOI Focus Bengal debate on which path the government should tread in dealing with the Maoists and ...
Mamata replaces state''s Health secretary
IBNLive.com - Jul 5, 2011PTI | 09:07 PM,Jul 05,2011 Kolkata, Jul 05 (PTI) Sanjay Mitra, earlier joint secretary at the PMO, was today appointed the new health secretary of West Bengal. Mitra assumed office close on the heels of 18 crib deaths in BC Roy Children's Hospital, ...
West Bengal's land bogey
Hindu Business Line - Ranabir Ray Choudhury - Jul 5, 2011The most recent example of this was provided by the West Bengal Industries Minister, Partha Chatterjee, who, at a July 2 conclave in Kolkata attended by more than a hundred CEOs, made it abundantly clear that industry would have to fight its own battle ...
''India, B''desh to discuss areas of coop during Manmohan visit''
IBNLive.com - Jul 5, 2011Mashiur Rahman, economic advisor to Bangladesh premier said here today after calling on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee here, "Our responsibility is to ensure that both the countries derive the benefit in these areas of cooperation". ...
Meet the new Mamata Banerjee
Times of India - Jul 5, 2011KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee has already reeled into the celluloid, much before she assumed her new role as the chief minister of Bengal. The mercurial character is already being filmed the rubber chappals, the thin-bordered white sari, the familiar stride ...
The Politics of Healthcare
Express Healthcare - Jul 8, 2011
One of Mamata Banerjee's poll promises was to revitalise West Bengal's healthcare sector and it seems to have struck the right note with the electorate. Her resounding victory has already entered the history books as a landmark victory but what remains ...
Mamata Announces Slew of Initiatives to Revamp Healthcare in West Bengal
Express Healthcare - Jul 8, 2011Days after assuming office as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee announced a slew of initiatives aimed at improving the healthcare infrastructure in the State. Banerjee who also holds the Health & Family Welfare portfolio said that her ...
Mamata to change name of West Bengal?
Washington Bangla Radio - Jul 8, 2011Kolkata, July 8 (IBNS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will reportedly change the name of the state to climb the alphabetical order. "We have seen in all state meets that our turn comes right at the end, we face grave problems. ...
Truce in Junglemahal, Mamata lays ground for talks with Maoists
Indian Express - Jul 4, 2011West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ensured a truce between security forces and Maoists in Junglemahal, her first step towards peace talks. On Mamata's insistence, anti-Naxal operations have been halted though Central personnel remain, ...
Much in a name
Calcutta Telegraph - Jul 7, 2011Mamata Banerjee came to power in West Bengal with a massive mandate for changing things in the state. Her enthusiasm for change is, therefore, a welcome break from the culture of the status quo. It is also something that the state desperately needs in ...
Mamata hunting for 'good' bureaucrats in Delhi
Indian Express - Jul 3, 2011
A very senior bureaucrat posted in Delhi has been assigned by Banerjee to tap IAS officers from West Bengal working on Central deputation. The officer has received a list of 36 such bureaucrats from the state government. A couple of days after taking ...
Railway ministry to stay with Trinamool: Mamata
Daijiworld.com - Jul 7, 2011Kolkata, July 7 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Thursday said her party will retain the railway ministry. "My party, being an ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre, ...
Surrender arms and talk: Mamata appeals to Maoists
Daijiworld.com - Jul 7, 2011Kolkata, July 7 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday offered to hold talks with the Maoists and promised that the joint forces operating in the rebel-hit areas would be withdrawn if all parties surrendered arms and peace was ...
46 political prisoners to be freed in Bengal
iNewsOne - Jul 7, 2011Kolkata, July 7 (IANS) Forty-six political prisoners will be freed immediately in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced Thursday. 'The orders have been issued. The papers are being processed. These will be ready in two days. ...
Britain may play positive role in W. Bengal development
DailyIndia.com - Jul 6, 2011Chatterjee said the state government has assured the British delegation about its intention to provide the bestinvestment-friendly climate to investors. "We have assured them that the government of West Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee ...
Ministers make UK guest wait
Calcutta Telegraph - Rith Basu - Jul 6, 2011
Kolkata Goalz was launched to train 300 boys from Ekbalpore, Watgunge and other areas by the coaches of six premier division clubs of Calcutta, including Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. Calcutta police, British Council, Calcutta Municipal Corporation, ...
Cure for Bengal's 'xyz' complex
Calcutta Telegraph - Jul 6, 2011Calcutta, July 6: Like some mothers who want their children's names to start with A because they believe it helps in school, the Mamata Banerjee government has launched the search for a new name for West Bengal that will ensure it is not treated like ...
State free to open Maoist talks: PC
Calcutta Telegraph - Jul 6, 2011New Delhi, July 6: Home minister P. Chidambaram today said there were "suggestions" that the Bengalgovernment was open to talks with Maoists but did not specify if the Centre would join the negotiations if they did begin. The hint of a wait-and-watch ...
''UK increasing diplomatic presence,development funds in India''
MSN India - Jul 6, 2011Britain is increasing the number of diplomats in this country and spending more on development related work," Browne told newsmen after a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Pointing out that he was the first minister of the new ...
Decrepit, broke State
Daily Pioneer - Jul 6, 2011If West Bengal was in decline when Jyoti Basu came to power in 1977, his successor, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has left behind a destroyed State with an empty treasury, a huge debt and a crippled system which ceased to govern long ago. ...
Mamata Mulling Renaming West Bengal
Daijiworld.com - Jul 6, 2011Kolkata, July 6 (IANS) The West Bengal government is contemplating renaming the state and the view of all the stake holders will be taken into consideration before taking any decision, a minister said Wednesday. "Since the name of the state starts with ...
India, UK discuss co-operation on counter-terrorism
BusinessGhana - Jul 6, 2011During his stay, Brown will travel to east Indian state West Bengal where he will Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in order to explore how the UK and West Bengal should best deepen their economic, commercial and scientific ties. ...
Chidambaram hints at talks with Maoists in Bengal
Mangalorean.com - Jul 6, 2011New Delhi, July 6 (IANS) Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Wednesday that there were "suggestions" of talks with Maoists in West Bengal where violence levels had come down sharply. The home minister said the state police chief had informed him that the ...
UK Foreign Office Minister visits Delhi and Kolkata
ISRIA (registration) - Jul 6, 2011UK Foreign Office Minister for South Asia Jeremy Browne is visiting Delhi and Kolkata on 5-6 July. This is his first official visit to India. The Foreign Office Minister's visit to India is the latest in a series by British government ministers, ...
Browne eyes close Bengal ties
Calcutta Telegraph - Amit Roy - Jul 5, 2011
To be sure, the Brits want to do business in Bengal and are hopeful that Mamata's arrival will usher in a more investor friendly climate. When Browne returns to London, his colleagues will rely on his assessment of whether West Bengal, ...
State to start by raising Rs 1000cr
Calcutta Telegraph - Jul 5, 2011The ceiling on the amount of borrowings the Bengal government can raise in a financial year is Rs 17800 crore. Of this, the erstwhile Left government had used up around Rs 5500 crore in the first two months of 2011-12 while the new Trinamul ...
PMO infusion for Bengal health
Calcutta Telegraph - Sanjay Mandal, Radhika Ramaseshan - Jul 5, 2011
However, other than paucity of investment, a debilitating factor afflicting the state's health care is lack of leadership — which an efficient officer can provide if backed by the chief minister who also holds the health portfolio. ...
Trinamool ally calls for joint forces' withdrawal
iNewsOne - Jul 5, 2011Kolkata, July 5 (IANS) An ally of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress Tuesday said the central government's decision to restart joint forces operation against Maoists in West Bengal will lead to 'useless bloodbath' and demanded the withdrawal of ...
Mamata invited
The Daily Star - Pallab Bhattacharya - Jul 5, 2011West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to accompany Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his official visit to Bangladesh on September 6 and 7. An indication to this effect was available when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Economic ...
India, Britain to step up anti-terror ties
iNewsOne - Jul 5, 2011New Delhi, July 5 (IANS) India and Britain Tuesday discussed measures to step up anti-terrorism ties as British foreign office minister, Jeremy Browne, arrived here on a two-day India trip that will also take him to West Bengalfor a meeting with Chief ...
Maoists regrouping in Bengal: Police
Punjab Newsline - Jul 5, 2011KOLKATA: Maoists in three western districts of West Bengal, on the back foot after killing and arrests of many of their leading members over the past two years, have started regrouping, police said Tuesday. "Taking advantage of the dense forest cover ...
West Bengal CM office still running headless
Deccan Chronicle - Kaushik Pradhan - Jul 4, 2011Mr Mitra, a 1982-batch IAS officer of the Bengal cadre, was posted at the PMO as its joint secretary since November 22, 2004. After Ms Banerjee took over the reins of the state as chief minister, she requested the Centre to release two of the Bengal ...
Disband Bengal medical council, NGO asks Mamata
TwoCircles.net - Jul 4, 2011Hope she (Banerjee) does something. I want to meet her and hope she meets me. There is no reason why she wouldn't," he said. Saha also said there was a need for regulating the expenses charged by private medical centres.
West Bengal: Re-inventing Folly
Washington Bangla Radio - Jul 4, 2011By South Asia Intelligence Review/IBNS Parties in Opposition seeking election have repeatedly, in the past, entered into usually covert deals with insurgent groups in various theatres of conflict in India, and events in WestBengal appear to have ...
West Bengal Movement For Release Of Political Prisoners
CounterCurrents.org - Ranjit Sur - Jul 4, 2011Its almost one and half a month since a New Government has sworn in West Bengal under the leadership of Ms Mamata Banerjee. Yet, not a single Political Prisoner is released, as promised . No one knows when and how they will get much ...
Mamata Banerjee claims she's the leader for change. Now is her opportunity to ...
Himal Southasian - Sumon K Chakrabarti - Jul 4, 2011
Before taking the oath of office at this designated auspicious time, she walked up to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, whom she was about to replace as chief minister, as well as the other top leaders of the Left Front that had ruled West Bengal for 34 long ...
Tagore songs to regale drivers at traffic signals
MSN India - Jul 3, 2011Kolkata, Jul 3 (PTI) Waiting at the traffic signals in Kolkata may no longer be boring if West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee''s plan to play Rabindra Sangeet (Tagore songs) at these points gets implemented. According to the plan, ...
Finally, Mamata and Marxists agree
Hindustan Times - Jul 7, 2011But Mamata Banerjee's government and the Marxist led Left Front have found an issue that gets an eager nod from both, the renaming of West Bengal. A day after the Trinamool Congress led government said it was contemplating a name change for the state, ...
WB govt always ready for talks: Mamata to Maoists
Hindustan Times - Jul 7, 2011The new West Bengal government is ready to begin a dialogue with Maoists provided they are willing to stop violence. While making the announcement on Thursday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said 46 political prisoners would be released shortly. ...
In the name of Bengal, Mamata and Marxists agree
Economic Times - Jul 7, 2011KOLKATA: On most things they do not even agree to disagree. But Mamata Banerjee )'s government and the Marxist-led Left Front have found an issue that gets an eager nod from both, the renaming of West Bengal. A day after the Trinamool Congress-led ...
Railway ministry will remain with Trinamool Congress, says Mamata
Deccan Chronicle - Jul 7, 2011
PTI West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee - PTI West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that the Railway ministry would remain with her party and the projects announced by her for West Bengal in ...
Railway ministry will remain with TC, says Mamata
Asian Age - Jul 7, 2011PTI West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that the Railway ministry would remain with her party and the projects announced by her for West Bengal in this year's budget would be completed. ...
Mamata's melody for road malady - Tagore songs!
Mangalorean.com - Jul 7, 2011Kolkata, July 7 (IANS) Are the cacophonous, chaotic roads of Kolkata game for a Tagore melody? For, playing soulful Rabindra Sangeet at traffic signals is the Mamata Banerjee government's solution to easing the rough ride on the city's roads - though ...
India: Re-inventing Folly In West Bengal - Analysis
Eurasia Review - Mohan Pradhan - Jul 4, 2011Parties in Opposition seeking election have repeatedly, in the past, entered into usually covert deals with insurgent groups in various theatres of conflict in India, and events in West Bengal appear to have followed this ...
Posted On Monday, July 04, 2011 at 07:50:51 PM
Bangalore Mirror - Jul 4, 2011Carrying unpleasant memories of noise pollution and traffic snarls during past visits to Kolkata? This piece of news will give some solace to your ears. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has hit upon the idea of playing Rabindra Sangeet at all ...
Planning Commission on Monday said there is no move "anywhere" to restrict foreign investment in pharmaceutical even as an expert group is looking into the specific issues related with FDI into the sector.
"I don't think there is any move anywhere to prevent the expansion of existing 100 per cent foreign owned pharmaceutical companies or to prevent green field investment by foreign companies," Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at the India-US High Technology Cooperation meeting.
Currently 100 per cent FDI is allowed in the sector. He was answering a question on whether the government was mulling restricting FDI in pharmaceutical sector. There are fears that acquisition of domestic pharma companies by MNCs will lead to drug price escalation.
Ahluwalia said due to this apprehension an expert group has been constituted under Planning Commission member Arun Maira to look into the issue.
"...(the expert group would see whether) there is any problem or should there be any restriction relating to merger and acquisition rules for existing Indian pharma companies," he said.
Domestic pharma companies, spearheaded by the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association and Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, had raised concerns that the takeover of Indian companies by foreign firms could lead to a situation of over-pricing of drugs and marginalisation of homegrown firms.
In 2008, Japan's Daiichi Sankyo acquired a majority stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories , while Abbott Laboratories acquired Piramal Healthcare's domestic formulations business last year.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), a nodal agency responsible for FDI-related matters, had also raised concerns over the growing dominance of multinationals in the sector.
Meanwhile, speaking on poverty at an CUTS event earlier in the day, Ahluwalia said "nobody denies that the poverty is very high. It is governments view that the percentage of poor (people living Below Poverty Line) has not fallen as fast as we would like to".
He also said that there is a need to broaden the debate beyond the numbers.
Suggesting ways to to deal with poverty, former Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla said:"We need more resources to deal with poverty. We need to increase our tax-GDP ratio which is currently hovering at around 10-11 per cent through broad-base taxation system".
Eight Indian companies have made the cut in the list of world's 500 largest companies compiled by Fortune magazine , with Indian Oil finding a place in the top 100 and Reliance Industries in 134th spot.
Out of the eight, five are state-run entities. Indian Oil has cornered the 98th spot, up from 125th place last year. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has also improved its ranking from previous year's 175.
Other Indian companies in the list are Bharat Petroleum (271), State Bank of India (291), Hindustan Petroleum (335), Tata Motors (358), ONGC (360) and Tata Steel (369).
Fortune's global list of world's 500 largest companies for 2011, compiled on the basis of latest annual revenue figures, is topped by retail giant Wal-Mart Stores. The retailer had annual revenues of USD 421,849 million.
The 2010 list also featured the same eight Indian companies. In the latest ranking, except State Bank of India, all other entities have improved their positions.
Last year, State Bank of India was at the 282 spot, followed by Bharat Petroleum (307), Hindustan Petroleum (354), Tata Steel (410), ONGC (413) and Tata Motors (442).
Wal-Mart Stores is followed by Royal Dutch Shell (USD 378,152 million) and Exxon Mobil (USD 354,674 million) at second and third positions, respectively.
According to the latest rankings, Indian Oil raked in annual revenues of USD 68,837 million while that of Reliance Industries stood at USD 58,900 million.
Bharat Petroleum had revenues of USD 34,102 million, while State Bank of India netted USD 32,450 million in revenues. The revenues of Hindustan Petroleum's stood at USD 28,593 million, Tata Motors (USD 27,046 million), ONGC (USD 26,945 million) and Tata Steel (USD 26,065 million).
The list features 61 Chinese companies. Meanwhile, other companies in the global top ten are BP (4), Sinopec Group (5), China National Petroleum (6), State Grid (7), Toyota Motor (8), Japan Post Holdings (9) and Chevron (10).
"It may be realised that even with the outstretched expectation of private sector contribution of USD 1 billion (Rs 4,500 crore) for next five years, the nation cannot fulfill the balance to reach the optimum level of spending of 4 per cent of global spending on exploration," it said.
India needs to encourage exploration and mining of high-value, low-volume commodities like platinum, zinc, etc, through the initiative of private entrepreneurs, a ministry panel headed by Additional Secretary S K Srivastava has said.
"Barring reservation of sensitive areas, all areas which have potential of hosting these commodities should be kept open for private investment," the panel to assess the need of mineral exploration and development (other than coal and lignite) for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) added.
Assessing the scale of private investment, including FDI, during the Plan, it said major foreign players like De Beers India, Rio Tinto , Anglo American, Adi Gold Mining, etc, are actively engaged in mineral exploration in the country.
It said though they have committed substantial sums, it is insufficient, while "domestic private investment for exploration has remained insignificant in the country before and after liberalisation" and the government is trying to accelerate the investment.
"To accelerate FDI infusion, the government of India through the Ministry of Mines has been interacting with Namibia, Argentina, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, Western Australia, Canada, Chile, South Africa, Iran, Thailand, etc, through diplomatic channels, entering into MoUs," it said.
It added that India fares poorly among mining nations and saw minimal investment, whereas global exploration spending during the 2001-10 period stood at $62.096 billion.
In contrast, FDI in the India's mining sector amounted to just $6.62 million in 2006-07, $444.26 million in 2007- 08, $34.22 million in 2008-09 and $86.63 million in the first half of 2009-10.
11 JUL, 2011, 04.28AM IST, SHRUTI CHOUDHURY & DEEPSHIKHA SIKARWAR,ET BUREAU
End 3-Year lock-in on FDI in education infrastructure: Dipp
NEW DELHI: Foreign direct investment in education infrastructure could become easier if a department of industrial policy and promotion proposal finds favour with the government.
The department has recommended dropping the three-year lock-in for FDI in construction if it is for creation of education infrastructure.
"The proposal is under consideration," an official told ET. "There is a view that building of education infrastructure needs to be treated differently from construction," he said.
FDI up to 100% is permitted in the construction sector, but is subject to stringent conditions that include a threeyear lock-in, minimum capitalisation of $5 million for joint ventures and $10 million for wholly-owned subsidiary and development of at least 10 hectares of land.
The FDI policy does not make a distinction on the basis of the end use of the constructed asset even as it has allowed 100% FDI in education per se since February 2000.
DIPP has circulated the proposal to the ministries concerned, seeking their views on dropping these conditions for investment in building infrastructure for education, a priority sector for the government.
"This proposal is quite relevant and timely," said Punit Shah, executive director, tax & regulatory services (financial services), KPMG. "This move is also in line with past waivers of such conditions by DIPP in sectors of strategic importance such as health care and hospitality."
The government has already decided to provide viability gap funding for education projects under the public private partnership ( PPP )) route. The DIPP proposal would make investment in education infrastructure even more attractive for foreign investors, who have not been really interested in the construction sector as a whole.
Since April 2000, over $9 billion investment has come into the construction sector, but a big portion of it has been in roads and highways.
DIPP argues that relaxation of construction sector norms could give a leg up to overall FDI inflows, which have declined 25% in 2010-11 from a year ago. The country attracted $19.4 billion in FDI in the precious fiscal.
The department has repeatedly pitched for removal or relaxation of the stringent conditions on FDI in construction but has found stiff resistance from the Reserve Bank and the finance ministry, both of which cite the buildup of an asset bubble that had led to a huge jump in FDI flows and a price rise even in tier three cities soon after the sector was opened up in 2005.
In fact, in 2007, the central bank had proposed that the government allow FDI in the sector only after nod from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, or FIPB.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/End-3-Year-lock-in-on-FDI-in-education-infrastructure-Dipp/articleshow/9179703.cms
National Sample Survey finds huge disparity in Indians' income
While average monthly per capita expenditure stood at Rs 1,053.64 in rural areas and Rs 1,984.46 in urban India in 2009-10, there remained a huge gap between the incomes of the top and bottom segments of the population, as per the latest National Sample Survey.
The National Sample Survey also found that food items accounted for the bulk of the expenditure, with the share of food in total household spending at 57 per cent and 44 per cent in rural and urban areas, respectively.
Key indicators from the 66th round of the NSS' quinquennial survey released today said the per capita expenditure level of the urban population was on average about 88 per cent higher than that of the rural population, based on the measure of modified mixed reference period (MMRP).
"In terms of MMRP estimates, the average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) in 2009-10 was estimated as Rs 1,053.64 in rural India and Rs 1,984.46 in urban India," it said.
The survey found that the poorest 10 per cent of India's rural population had an average MPCE of Rs 453, while for the poorest 10 per cent of the urban population, the average MPCE stood at Rs 599.
There is a huge gap between the income level of the top and bottom segments in the country.
The top 10 per cent of the rural population had an average MPCE of Rs 2,517, which is about 5.6 times that of the bottom 10 per cent.
Meanwhile, the top 10 per cent of the urban population had an average MPCE of Rs 5,863, or about 9.8 times that of the bottom 10 per cent.
"In rural India, half of the population belonged to households with an MPCE below Rs 895 (median value) and nearly 40 per cent of the rural population of India had MPCE below Rs 800," the key indicators said.
About 60 per cent of the rural population had an MPCE of less than Rs 1,000, while only about 10 per cent had an MPCE above Rs 1,650.
In urban areas of the country, half the population was living with an MPCE below Rs 1,500.
About 70 per cent of the rural population had an MPCE above Rs 1,100, while nearly 30 per cent had an MPCE above Rs 2,100 and 20 per cent above Rs 2,600.
There was also a marked difference in the spending patterns of the top and bottom strata with respect to food.
Mamata, the leading lady of Bengali jatra
Her life story doesn't lack drama, and now it's feeding the Jatra folk theatre form of Bengal known for its dramatic, over-the-top performances. Even plays unrelated to the firebrand Mamata Banerjee are making sure they cash in on her brand name.
The script of Banerjee's life, full of struggles and slogans, has prompted jatra performers to unleash at least five plays based on her life, now that she is chief minister.
"Mahakaraney Mukhyamantri Mamata" (chief minister Mamata at the state secreteriat) which will portray her life's journey, is based on a book written by the leader herself.
"The jatra is based on her life. From Nandigram, where she started her crusade to Singur and finally her entry as chief minister into the secretariat from where she was once driven out, all have been included. It is based on a book written by her," Gautam Chakraborty, the producer, said.
Bengali jatra, which still continues to be a rich source of entertainment, particularly among the rural masses, is all geared up for the festive season. Play rehearsals have begun in right earnest.
Most of the plays focus on the ultimate glory - Banerjee's ascent to the chief minister's throne for which she put up a long battle.
Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and its allies swept the recent assembly polls in ending the Left Front's unprecedented 34-year rule in the state.
"Banglar Kshamatay Mamata" (Mamata in power in Bengal), "Banglar Masnade Mamata" (Mamata at the helm of Bengal), "Mahasangram Joyee Mamata" (Mamata the victorious), "Matir Ghore Mamata" (Mamata in a mud house) all have the life and achievements of the leader as their central theme.
Some jatra makers have used the name 'Mamata' in the title even though their play has nothing to do with the firebrand leader. "Maa Ache Mamata Nei" is one of such.
Banerjee has not only become the face of Bengal politics, but the places associated with her political struggles are also being used by the producers to attract viewers.
A drama titled "E Kaaler Karun Arjun" (Karan Arjun of the Modern Era) concentrates on the political violence and turmoil that took place in places like Nandigram, Singur and Netai. The punchline is: "Netai, Nandigram, Singur will no more witness bloodbath - Karan Arjun, the saviours, are here."
While Singur and Nandigram were the backdrop of intense peasant struggles spearheaded by Banerjee, Netai was the scene of a carnage allegedly by miscreants owing allegiance to the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) which led the Left Front.
"Be it politics or anything, Didi's name is everywhere. She is the talk of the town. Why should we not use her name if its helps in publicity?" says a producer of one play.
The name of a production "Badla Noy Bodol Chai" (Change, Not Revenge) is the carbon copy of a popular slogan coined by Banerjee ahead of the assembly polls. "Agnikanya" (Firebrand lady), "Asche Agnikanya" (Firebrand lady cometh) have indirect reference to Banerjee.
Traditionally on the day of the Rath Yatra Festival - which fell July 3 this year - the jatra producers announce their upcoming dramas, with the shows starting in the Durga Puja season in September-October.
Huge display advertisements are splashed across all major vernacular dailies to promote the dramas.
Though Bengali jatra is still a big mode of entertainment for the masses, it has been on the decline in the face of satellite television and multiplex-movies.
The jatra producers hope Banerjee who came to power riding on the 'winds of change' can also change their fortunes.
Indian companies look overseas for investments: Assocham
Majority of Indian corporates, surveyed by industry body Assocham, are looking at overseas destinations for investment in view of high inflation, rising interest rates and virtual "policy paralysis".
"Despite healthy economic growth in the last fiscal, several companies are concerned over high inflationary pressures, rising interest rates, poor infrastructure and policy paralysis leading to delays in decision-making," it said.
The chamber said it has surveyed over 500 leading corporates.
Over 85 per cent of respondents said the bureaucrats are delaying the decision-making process due to the fear of corruption scandals, Assocham said.
"If this continues, there will be serious doubts over nine per cent GDP growth being achieved this financial year," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat.
Besides, the respondents said the credit off-take from banks has slowed down. "This clearly indicates that the existing investments are being put on hold and fresh investments are not coming in," Rawat said.
Further, the chamber said, the strong performance in export sector is also unlikely to be sustained in the coming months.
"With the Duty Entitlement Passbook (DEPB) Scheme coming to an end on September 30, about 60 per cent of exporters fear that they will be under pressure to maintain their competitiveness in global markets," it said.
The country's merchandise exports grew 46.4 per cent to USD 29.2 billion in June 2011, year-on-year.
Rising cost of raw materials is also impacting performance of exporters, the chamber said.
Majority of respondents said they are likely to increase their products prices in the next six months as they are left with no other option, it added.
26 JUN, 2011, 03.06PM IST,PTI
Removal of FDI cap up to 49% to encourage invest
NEW DELHI: Industry ministry's proposal to do away with foreign direct investment caps below 49 per cent in all sectors will bring clarity in the FDI policy regime, besides encouraging investments, say experts.
Making a case for removal of FDI caps below 49 per cent, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has said in a discussion paper that the limits provide opportunity for arbitrage to unscrupulous Indian partners at the cost of consumers.
"These FDI limits are artificial and often breached through complex web of subsidiaries. We had enough experience of FDI in the country. Time has come to open most of the sectors specially multi-brand retail and defence," said Diljeet Titus , senior partner of law firm Titus & Co.
Moreover, he added, "From the legal point of view, it doesn't matter whether the equity holding is 26 per cent or 49 per cent. In both cases, the investor will exercise the same control."
Expressing similar opinion, JNU Professor and expert on overseas investments Manoj Pant said these sectoral caps are meaningless and do not prevent foreign companies from entering the Indian market.
"Sectoral caps on FDI do not work at all. You can't prevent cross-holding. There should be a clear policy. The caps do not serve any purpose, instead you lose lot of money," Pant said.
As per the current norms, a downstream investment by a joint venture firm with minority foreign equity and majority Indian equity, is not considered as FDI and the DIPP paper said, "this effectively opens all sectors to 49 per cent FDI indirectly, raising a question mark on the relevance of sectoral caps".
Hence, "it is logical to argue that 'what can be done indirectly, should as well be allowed to be done directly'. Therefore, there is a clear case of abolishing all caps below 49 per cent," it said.
Commenting on this, KPMG Executive Director Krishan Malhotra said that if indirect investment up to 49 per cent can be made under the present norms in any sector (as pointed out in the paper), then the question raised by the industry ministry in its discussion paper is valid.
"Accordingly, direct investment up to 49 per cent should be allowed in all the sectors like multi-brand retail," Malhotra said.
A government official too said that: "This discussion paper is an invitation for foreign investors to start investing in sectors like defence, multi-brand retail, media and aviation.
8 JUN, 2011, 02.16PM IST,PTI
Discussions on to further liberalise FDI policy: Pranab Mukherjee
NEW DELHI: Amid suggestions for opening up of multi-brand retail for foreign investments, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said discussions were on to further liberalise the FDI policy.
"Discussions are underway to further liberalise the FDI (foreign direct investment) policy," he said at the annual conference of chief commissioners and directors general of Central Board of Excise and Customs ( CBEC )) at New Delhi.
He said with an aim to make the FDI policy user friendly, all prior regulations and guidelines have been consolidated into an comprehensive document. The document is reviewed every six months.
Mukherjee's statement comes within weeks of an Inter-ministerial Group (IMG) headed by Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu recommending to the government opening up the multi-brand retail sector for FDI to tame inflation.
The IMG constituted in February by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had favoured opening of the sector in a calibrated manner.
Last July, the industry department had initiated discussions on opening the sector for FDI.
The share of organised retail in the total retail trade happens to be just over 4 per cent in India. The unorganised retail sector employs about 33 million people.
11/07/2011
Sonia nods, PM to reshuffle Cabinet tomorrow
Some new faces to be inducted, few to be elevated; `big 4' to be left untouched
- 100%0%
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will undertake a reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers on Tuesday inducting some new faces and elevating some in the exercise that may also see a few being dropped.
Trinamool Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandhopadhyay is set to be inducted as a Minister of State while his party colleague and Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi is tipped to be promoted to Cabinet rank and shifted to the Railway Ministry.
The Railway portfolio became vacant after Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee resigned and took over as Chief Minister of West Bengal after the Assembly elections in May.
The reshuffle exercise, second in six months, was finalised at a meeting between the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday morning. This was their fourth meeting in recent days.
The reshuffle, which is expected to take place at 5 p.m., may leave untouched the 'big four' -- Finance, Home, Defence and External Affairs.
With Uttar Pradesh set to go to Assembly polls next year, Minister of State for Steel with independent charge Beni Prasad Verma is likely to be promoted as a Cabinet Minister while Raj Babbar, MP from Agra, may find a berth.
Those speculated for promotion include Jyotiraditya Scindia (MoS Telecom) and Gurudas Kamat (MoS Home) and shifted to some other Ministries with Independent charge.
will he make the cut? May get a berth considering the elections to Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 2012
The resignation of Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran in the wake of his being named in the 2G scam and the resignation offer by Corporate Affairs Minister Murli Deora has lent urgency to the reshuffle.
Another Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam representative A. Raja quit as Teleocm Minister in connection with the 2G scam in November and the party appears to be in no mood to fill these vacancies with its candidates, at least for the time being.
Among others being talked about for promotion is Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikant Jena, who was a Cabinet Minister in the United Front government in the mid-1990s.
Those who may make the exit include Minister for Development of North East Region B.K. Handique whose place may be taken by Pabansingh Ghatowar, MP from Dibrugarh in Assam.
Tribal Affairs Minister Kanti Lal Bhuria, who has been made Madhya Pradesh Congress president, may be asked to take up party work full time.
There is expectation that Andhra Pradesh, which has just one representative in the Cabinet, could see more MPs getting into the Ministry. Chhattisgarh, Goa and Manipur, which have no representation may also get some Ministerial berths.
Source: PTI
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28 JUN, 2011, 04.06PM IST,PTI
Committed to expediting reforms: FM to US investors
WASHINGTON: Trying to hardsell India, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday assured the US business community that the country's growth story was intact and it was committed to expediting reforms and further liberalisation of the foreign investment regime.
"India's economic reforms have contributed to the Indian growth story... Overall GDP in 2010-11 has been estimated at 8.5 per cent. The economy is expected to maintain the growth momentum at the same level in 2011-12," he told a gathering of corporate leaders and policymakers at the 'US-India Economic and Financial Partnership' conference here.
The minister further said that discussions were underway to build consensus on "further liberalisation of the FDI policy in the retail and defence sectors."
US businessmen are keenly looking at opening of the multi-brand retail sector to foreign investment and the issue was likely to come up during the bilateral meeting between Mukherjee and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
As part of the major initiative, the minister told the conference, being organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Brookings Institute, that India has completely liberalised "pricing and payment of technology transfer fee, trademark, and brand name and royalty payments".
Although the economy is on a high growth path, Mukherjee said the challenge is to sustain GDP expansion in light of global developments and contain domestic inflation, which is hovering at around 9 per cent.
India and the Knowledge Economy: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities | ||
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| A World Bank report, India and the Knowledge Economy: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities, was launched in Washington DC on June 28, 2005. Buy the Book Online | Download the Overview | Brief Summary of Recommendations New World Bank Report Says India Can Make Even Greater Strides in Growing its Economy and Reducing Poverty. See all K4D resources on India and the Knowledge Economy One of the world's largest economies, India has made enormous strides in its economic and social development in the past two decades. But according to a new World Bank report, Indiacan do much more to leverage its strengths in today's knowledge-based global economy. India and the Knowledge Economy: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities argues that, when supported by the right kind of government policy incentives, the country can increase its economic productivity and the well-being of its population by making more effective use of knowledge. "This report serves as an important Bank input into the domestic consultation and reform process which will move India further into the global knowledge economy of the twenty-first century," says Michael Carter, World Bank Country Director for India. "The World Bank recognizes that making effective use of knowledge in any country requires developing appropriate policies and institutions to promote entrepreneurship and efficient use of knowledge." Grooming World Class Knowledge WorkersIndia already has many highly educated and vocationally qualified people who are making their mark, domestically and globally, in science, engineering, information technology (IT), and research and development (R&D). But they represent only a small fraction of the total population. "To create a sustained cadre of 'knowledge workers,' India needs to make its education system more demand driven to meet the emerging needs of the economy and to keep its highly qualified people in the country," suggests Anuja Utz, co-author of the report. "This means raising the quality of all higher education institutions, not just a few world-class ones, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology." Some ways of making the system more demand driven are to allow the private sector to fill the burgeoning demand for higher education by relaxing bureaucratic hurdles, and through better accreditation systems for private providers of education and training. Increased university-industry partnerships to translate research into applications can yield economic value. Lifelong learning programs can be used to meet the learning needs of all, both within and outside the school system, including using distance learning technologies to expand access to and the quality of formal education and lifelong training programs. Promoting InnovationIndia is becoming a major global source of R&D; about 100 multinational corporations have already set up R&D centers in the country, leading to the deepening of technological and innovative capabilities among Indian firms. But even so, "India is still a relatively closed economy compared with other Asian economies," notes Carl Dahlman, co-author of the report. "India should increasingly tap into the rapidly growing stock of global knowledge through channels such as foreign direct investment, technology licensing, and so on, so that it can catch up to countries like China, where reforms have moved ahead much more rapidly." An important part of India 's innovation system is the diffusion of modern and more efficient technologies in all sectors of the economy. According to Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India, "India is already gaining international repute for its innovations in areas ranging from pharmaceuticals to software. IT will achieve even more as it improves the efficiency of public R&D, increase private R&D, and encourages greater university-industry linkages. It is leveraging traditional knowledge with modern science and exploiting public-private partnerships to support grassroots innovations which can improve the quality of life for the poor. An example is the Computer-Based Functional Literacy program, initiated by Tata Group to overcome illiteracy through innovative use of IT." Creating a for Center of Excellence Information and Communication TechnologyIn the telecommunications sector, fierce price competition has resulted in Indian mobile telephony becoming one of the cheapest in the world; more than 47 million people had mobile phones at the end of 2004! India has achieved remarkable global success in the IT sector which accounted for about 3.82 percent of India 's GDP in 2003-04, and provided employment for almost a million people. But the report notes that the explosive growth of ICTs has been concentrated in urban areas. The government should promote the application and use of ICTs throughout the economy to raise productivity and growth. This requires increasing access to ICTs, such as widespread availability of telephones, including mobile phones, computers, and connectivity to the Internet; enhancing ICT literacy and skills among the population; and developing ICT applications that can provide much-needed social, economic, and government services to citizens. Moving to ActionThis report recognized India 's achievements but sees enormous potential yet to be unleashed. It recommends an India-led process to coordinate and integrate reforms, combining those in the economic and institutional regime with the many initiatives in education, innovation and ICTs. "This report comes at a very opportune time. It provides a very useful input for discussion by all stakeholders. What is needed is a national vision and the leadership and governance mechanisms to put this into action," notes Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group,India. Sam Pitroda, Chairman of India's National Knowledge Commission supports this view: "We will take into consideration the analysis and recommendations of the report as we design our own strategy. We look forward to cooperating with the World Bank and other multilateral agencies as well as with think tanks and universities in India and abroad as the Commission works to harness knowledge for India 's development and realize its potential to become a major knowledge power." |
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/WBIPROGRAMS/KFDLP/0,,contentMDK:20552872~menuPK:461238~pagePK:64156158~piPK:64152884~theSitePK:461198,00.html
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Amazon.com: India and the Knowledge Economy: Leveraging Strengths ...
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In the global knowledge economy of the twenty-first century,India¡¦s development policy challenges will require it to use knowledge more effectively to ...
30 JUN, 2011, 10.28AM IST, UNNATI NARANG,MUMBAI MIRROR
India emerging as a land of opportunities
Are you looking for a job abroad? Have you wanted to move overseas for a long time? Even if you're tempted to explore the grass on the other side of the fence, think twice before seeking work opportunities abroad.
India registered a rapid growth of 9.7 per cent last year and has bounced back strongly post recession. Apart from jobs in various sectors, it has led to emerging opportunities for entrepreneurs.
At the same time, the rest of the world is still facing economic lows. Is it then the right time to move abroad for a job? With recessionary fears looming over numerous economies, many experts believe it is not. How do prospects in India compare as against those abroad?
Ravi Ramakrishnan , director, TMI Network , gives an overview, "European opportunities are completely wiped out post recession, with most countries erecting strong barriers to entry for overseas talent. With nil growth or negative growth in most economies, a number of which are also close to collapse, who would opt to go there? Except for MNCs which transfer Indian managers or staff overseas, there are not too many viable opportunities in Europe. If you consider the US, earlier on, jobs were largely available in manufacturing, which is in the doldrums now. Even the middle-east is not as interesting any more as it was earlier. The social and political turmoil has made it less attractive."
Based on an overall comparison of jobs abroad with those in India, which one is better, given the timing and the current global job market? While most experts believe that the comparison is impossible given the stark differences in context, there are many in complete favour of India.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/India-emerging-as-a-land-of-opportunities/articleshow/9048006.cms
India important investment destination, but challenges remain: Ernst & Young
India may still be an important investment destination for global companies but its complex tax structure, difficulty in repatriation of cash from investments and corruption issues are becoming key challenges for investors, according to a survey released on Monday by global advisory firm Ernst & Young (E&Y).
In its study - What lies Beneath ?? - E&Y said that chief financial officers (CFOs) were underestimating the costs and time involved in entering rapid growth markets like India. The study involved in-depth interviews with 921 CFOs from 59 countries, both developed and rapid-growth markets.
Over a third (36 percent) of CFOs considered that overall costs were higher than expected in entering rapid growth markets; while 43 percent said the investment took more time than anticipated, said the report.
Higher than expected operational costs were a concern for 36 percent of the respondent CFOs with research and development being the most likely area to seek overspends.
Costs involved with getting the right people for the job also were spiralling as demand for talent outstripped supply.
"CFOs are also overspending on integration and harmonisation of reporting frameworks to meet global reporting standards. It is interesting to notice that wherein developed countries the focus of the CFO is cost reduction, in India, the challenge is how to manage growth that might be in excess of 20 percent a year," said E&Y.
Repatriation of cash from investments emerged as one of the key areas of concern for companies investing in India. The advisory firm said this may be because surging capital flows were stoking inflation and impacting exchange rate exposure.
In addition, multiples in India get really high on the back of expected growth for a long period into the future leading to danger of overpaying for assets.
Another concern were the slew of bribery and corruption scandals that have affected India's image in the global investor community.
"In the area of political cost, management of risks and exposure to bribery and corruption is the leading reason for unanticipated expense. The regulatory environment in India is going through a major transformation, investors need to anticipate them and make sure they build these costs into their investment rationale," said the E&Y study.
"CFOs interviewed very clearly advised that a 'zero tolerance approach' is the key."
11 JUL, 2011, 05.57PM IST, TAMAL,ET BUREAU
Mamata to stay in Maoist-hit Jangalmahal for 2 days
KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will pay a two-day visit to Maoist-infested Jangalmahal from Tuesday to announce some financial packages for the tribals in West Midnapore and Bankura. This will be her first visit to the Maoist zone after she became the chief minister.
Informed sources at Writers' Buildings said on Monday that the chief minister will visit Kharikamathani under Nayagram police station in West Midnapore district on Tuesday morning. The area is the largest market place for the tribals where Mamata is likely to announce some package for the tribals. A meeting has been organised in the region on behalf of the West Midnapore district administration to enable the chief minister to announce the package, sources said. It is learnt that she will inaugurate some trauma care centres in the region.
Later, on Tuesday afternoon, the chief minister will attend another function at Jhargram in the same district. In the evening, on Tuesday, Mamata will catch a train from Jhargram to reach Bankura, another Maosit-infested district of Jangalmahal.
Mamata had addressed a rally at Lalgarh on August 9 last year. Since then, Mamata has not visited Jangalmahal. Mamata's visit to Jangalmahal is politically significant. She has recently announced a package for the Maoists and urged them to surrender arms and return to mainstream life. She has also announced release of 46 prisoners who have been languishing in different jails in the state. All these prisoners were reportedly implicated falsely in several criminal cases by the previous Left Front government.
The chief minister also announced that her government will withdraw Central forces from Jangalmahal once the entire area became an "arms free zone". All such announcements were made before her planned visit to Jangalmahal. But, the Peoples Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA), which was being considered as a Maoist frontal organisation by the previous Left Front government, is not happy with the present state government. This is because the government has recently arrested PCPA leader Manoj Mahato. Mahato was on bail and had been arrested recently in connection with some other criminal cases pending against him.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/mamata-to-stay-in-maoist-hit-jangalmahal-for-2-days/articleshow/9186556.cms
11 JUL, 2011, 06.37AM IST,TNN
Now, Red outfit in Jangalmahal warns Mamata
KOLKATA: A day before chief minister Mamata Banerjee's Jangalmahal visit, Maoist-backed outfit People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) threatened on Sunday to launch fresh agitation if the state did not stop "arbitrary arrest" of PCPA leaders. PCPA accused the state of adopting "unethical" means to deal with law and order in Jangalmahal.
In a statement, the PCPA alleged police are implicating innocents in false cases. The outfit also slammed rights activists who are part of Mamata's Jangalmahal peace mission. The government is not honest in trying to sort out problems in Jangalmahal, said PCPA spokesman Joydeb Mahato in the statement. He called the CM's initiatives an eyewash. "If they really want to start the peace process, then they should stop framing tribal leaders and stop operations against poor tribals," he said, referring to the arrest of PCPA secretary Manoj Mahato.
Observers said this was a ploy by the PCPA to pressurize the CM. On Thursday, she had appealed for to surrender arms in Jangalmahal, to be rehabilitated and reap the benefits of financial packages.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Now-Red-outfit-in-Jangalmahal-warns-Mamata/articleshow/9180510.cms
10 MAY, 2011, 08.25AM IST,TNN
CPM may bleed in red zone
KOLKATA: The undulating plateau, the apparently timid Adivasi, under-development in forest hamlets: all this look the same as they did a decade ago. Yet, much has changed in Jangalmahal since the 2008 tribal upsurge.
It has unsettled political equations in the red bastion. On Tuesday, 14 assembly segments spread over West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia go to polls in the last phase in West Bengal.
Though the Left Front maintained a comfortable lead in most of the 14 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, it's different this time. If the voting percentage increases in Jhargram, Balarampur and Baghmundi on Tuesday, Jangalmahal may spring some surprises.
Many in the forest hamlets of Kantapahari, Purnapani and Birkand in Jhargram assembly segment, for instance, did not vote in 2009 because of the vote boycott call by Maoists. With spectacular security arrangements in 2011 (it works out to one paramilitary jawan for 23 voters), villagers are likely to have a free choice in the last lap of the make-or-break election.
In December 2008, Jhargram had voted for status quo despite the tribal dissent in West Midnapore. Mamata Banerjee and her party could not cash in on the anti-incumbency even after a dharna in Midnapore town. Three years later, Trinamool Congress leader Subhendu Adhikari has established his influence in around 40 booths in Jhargram. This is apart from the Maoist-led PCPA strongholds in forest hamlets.
In Jhargram, the PCPA attacks both the CPM and Trinamool. CPM leaders are banking on this division of votes to scrape through in a constituency where they had led by nearly 20,000 votes two years ago.
CPM's position is the worst in Nayagram and Gopiballavpur where the Opposition including the PCPA have come under the Shramik-Krishak Oikya banner, trying to tear into the CPM in a segment where the Left had won by 29,076 votes in 2009.
Statistics may go against the prediction of a CPM defeat in Nayagram. The Left's vote machinery has been marginalised in this area, bordered by the Subarnarekha river and flanked by Orissa and East Midnapore, a safe corridor for Maoists. It is also a strategic place for Trinamool. Here, five members of the Aguan family were killed in Nichu Patina village. Subhendu Adhikari has established a working unity among the Opposition in this assembly segment.
In Gopiballavpur, Trinamool candidate Churamani Mahato is an old Naxalite who had built the PCPA network after June 2009. The network has strengthened in two years. Trinamool is its political face.
CPM Midnapore district secretariat member Dahareswar Sen draws succour from the party's 47,248 margin in the Lok Sabha polls. "There has been some erosion in our support base. Even then the Opposition can't wipe out the huge margin we had," said Sen.
Trinamool's Adhikari, who has been camping in this zone, said his party will wrest at least four seats. "We will win Nayagram, Balarampur and Baghmundi and have bright prospects in Gopiballavpur, Salboni and Jhargram. We will win Jhargram if Chattradhar Mahato's brigade is unable to cross the 10,000-mark. We are in a close fight with CPM in Midnapore," he said.
In Garbeta, CPM's margin is likely to fall dramatically, Adhikari predicted. He has also managed to get the support of Jharkhand Party leader Babu Bose who had sided with CPM in the last election.
Adhikari concedes that his party won't be able to make much headway in Binpur constituency, cradle of the upsurge. Belpahari has changed in a year. JKP (Naren) candidate Chunibala Hansda has lost her credibility among the tribals to a large extent. The Congress is backing young tribal candidate Arjun Hansda, who is likely to fetch maximum votes from the Jamboni block. CPM's Dibakar Hansda has a good chance of steering clear in this triangular fight. Situation in Joypur assembly segment is similar where the Opposition led by 6,871 votes in 2009. The Opposition here is a divided lot, while CPM and Forward Bloc stand united.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/CPM-may-bleed-in-red-zone/articleshow/8213672.cms
11/07/2011Kalka Mail accident: Toll rises to 69, rescue operations still on
Fatehpur (UP): The death toll in Sunday's derailment of Delhi-bound Kalka Mail here rose to 68 today with rescuers pulling out 30 more bodies, including that of two Swedish nationals, from the mangled compartments of the ill-fated train.
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Posted: Mon, Jun 20 2011. 1:00 AM ISTPublished on page 4
Over 250 people were injured in the incident and they have admitted to various hospitals in this district in Uttar Pradesh and in Kanpur even as rescuers pulled out more people from the train.
"68 bodies have been recovered so far. 259 people are undergoing treatment at a hospital here," Fatehpur Superintendent of Police Ram Bharose said. The deceased include 14 women.
Sandeep Mathur, Chief Public Relations Officer of North Central Railway, said in Allahabad that two Swedish nationals were among the dead.
While one Swedish national has been identified as Wick from the statement of his injured compatriot Oscar, who was also travelling with him, the identity of the other is yet to be ascertained.
The derailment took place at 12.20 pm on Sunday when the packed train from Howrah reached near Malwa station, nearly 120 kms from Lucknow. The train was moving at a speed of 108 km/hour.
Rescue operations continued through the night to extricate the trapped passengers and bodies from the badly damaged AC and other compartments.
A special train that left Kanpur carrying 167 passengers of the ill-fated train reached New Delhi this morning.
"The search is over and we have a final count of 69 dead and 196 injured, of which four are serious," Fatehpur additional district magistrate Anil Kumar Pathak told IANS over telephone from the site.
The rescue operations concluded under the leadership of the army Monday noon.
"The railway authorities will now get down to restoration of the rail track, on which traffic was completely disrupted. "The train was on its way from Howrah to Kalka, via Delhi. At least a dozen trains had to be cancelled while about two dozen were diverted," he said.
The operation was closed after a final nod from Col A.D.S. Dhillon, who was heading an army contingent from Allahabad. The army was assisted by a special team of the central government's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which reached the site Sunday night.
The dead Swedish nationals have been identified as Victor and Wick. They were travelling in a second class reserved coach that was completely smashed in the accident. Their Swedish companion, Oscar, however, survived and is hospitalised with multiple injuries in Kanpur.
The rescue teams also pressed their trained sniffer dogs into service to lead the way to any bodies possibly trapped under the heaps of mangled metal. "That helped to track least a dozen more bodies, which could not have been detected otherwise," Pathak said.
Over 100 of the injured were hospitalised in Fatehpur, Kanpur and Lucknow, while the rest were discharged after first-aid, said local officials.
Fatehpur's Chief Medical Officer K.N. Joshi said about 150 people were hospitalised with amputations, fractures and other injuries.
Disconsolate survivors searched all night and were still at the site Monday for some signs of life.
"I went to the hospital and have been running around the whole night looking for my brother," a sobbing, 14-year old Shahana told reporters at the site. The accident had left her mother dead and father with an amputated leg.
Minutes later, as she discovered that one of the bodies being pulled out by the army personnel was that of her brother, she became hysterical, "What will I do now, where will I go?"
Local villagers were the first to rush to the rescue of victims. Many passengers complained that relief came a bit too late and they had to fend for themselves for at least two hours before help arrived.
It took some time for railway staff to reach the site with the necessary equipment to cut through the metal with gas-cutters in order to extricate trapped passengers from the mangled coaches.
A senior railway official confirmed that the train was running at 108 km an hour when the driver applied emergency brakes, triggering the derailment.
Some 180 army men worked all night to pull out the dead. Military helicopters ferried the more seriously injured to hospitals to Lucknow and Allahabad.
The accident is described as this year's worst rail tragedy in India's rail network which is regarded as one of the largest in the world, ferrying about 14 million passengers a day.
Source: Agencies
11/07/2011Ministers' panel clears draft Food Bill
New Delhi: An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Monday approved the draft Food Security Bill, which will provide highly subsidised wheat and rice to the poor as a matter of legal right.
The panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee cleared the proposal, which will provide food grains at a cheap rate to 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of those living in cities. Thus 68 per cent of the country's total population will have food security.
States, which have a crucial role in implementation of the programme, will also be taken on board.
The Bill after being cleared by the Law Ministry would be before the Chief Ministers and after that will go to Parliament.
"Our intention is to place it before Parliament in the Monsoon Session," a source said after the EGoM meeting.
Under the Bill, which will give legal right to the beneficiaries for food, a quantity of 7 kg per month per person will be given to the 'priority sector' (Below Poverty Line). It will be provided at Rs. 3 per kg for rice and Rs. 2 per kg for wheat.
For the general category (Above Poverty Line) the food quantity will be 3-4 kg per person. The rate will be half of the minimum support price which the government pays to farmers.
The Food Security Bill, requiring 51 million tonnes of food grains will involve an additional subsidy outgo of Rs. 13,000 crore, taking the total food subsidy to Rs. 95,000 crore.
Source: PTI
Mamata looks to UPA in a bid to kick-start West Bengal economy
Banerjee, who is in Delhi to seek a fiscal package, is likely to pitch for a larger share of grants for the state
, nidhi.m@livemint.com
Mamata Banerjee, the recently elected chief minister of West Bengal, arrives in New Delhi to seek a fiscal package for the state, which has a debt burden of around Rs.2 trillion.
Banerjee, the former Union railways minister, who defeated the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led state government in the April-May polls, will be in Delhi for three days and will meet finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The Trinamool Congress is part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance government and expectations are that this would enable Banerjee extract more resources for the state.
In the run-up to her visit, which begins on Monday, the chief minister had held a meeting with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in Kolkata on 29 May. Given the existing debt burden, it is likely that Banerjee would pitch for a greater share of grants and more resources under existing Central government programmes.
The state's fiscal situation is in a precarious state with non- Plan expenditure or spending on subsidies and salaries accounting for 93% of the total revenues. The state's 11th Plan for 2007-12 has been projected at Rs.63,779 crore, which include both state's resources of Rs.46,985 crore and Central assistance of Rs.16,794 crore.
Analysts maintain that West Bengal is in urgent need of a fund infusion.
Biswajit Dhar, director general of Research and Information Systems, said, "West Bengal needs specific assistance from the Centre preferably short term funds to get going. They need to get the overdraft situation under control. Infrastructure will be possible only with help from the Centre, which will allow West Bengal to come up in the medium term."
In its last term in office, the Left Front government had made an effort to attract industrial investments. Accordingly, the then chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had invited Indonesia's Salim Group and the Tata group to set up a chemical hub and an automotive plant for the manufacture of Nano. But both projects got mired in land acquisition rows with protests triggering violent stand-offs between farmers who had to give up their land and the state authorities.
Both projects were abandoned and became symbols of the inability of the state government to successfully steer the state towards industrialization. The state's infrastructure remains woefully inadequate and parts of the state are overrun by Maoists insurgents adding to the challenges of providing development. In the past the Left government had blamed its inability to meet targets due to the Centre failing to provide adequate funds.
Banerjee, who had led the protesting farmers in Singur, now faces the challenge of reviving West Bengal's decaying industries, taming its strong workers unions and replenishing its coffers by attracting investment.
To underline her commitment to transforming the state's industrial landscape, she has appointed as her finance minister the industry friendly Amit Mitra, a former secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Last week, Banerjee, along with Mitra, met Japanese businessmen in a bid to woo investment into the state. With a large number of those who voted for her coming from the youth and working category, the pressure to deliver on her election promises of creating more jobs and stimulating economic growth is high.
But for immediate relief, she needs assistance from the Centre for schemes such as the National Social Assistance Programme, the Backward Region Grant Fund and the Rural Krishi Vikas Yojana and use it to build a stronger economy.
N. Bhaskar Rao, head of Centre for Media Studies, said the good rapport between Banerjee and finance minister Mukherjee will "allow her to get funds". But he warned that other states too could make similar demands which could put Mukherjee in a spot. According to reports, state governments in Punjab and Kerala are facing a similar fiscal crisis as West Bengal.
According to Pratap Bhanu Mehta, head of the New Delhi- based Centre for Policy Research think tank, "even if the Centre is generous. it still won't be enough to bail out the state" because of its debt burden.
PTI contributed to this story.
http://www.livemint.com/2011/06/20095853/Mamata-looks-to-UPA-in-a-bid-t.html?atype=tp
- 11/07/2011
A tax on breasts and moustache
Lord Padmanabha temple got its wealth from royal donations and brutal taxes, such as the 'breast tax'
Securitymen near Sree Ananta Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. PTI
The Lord Padmanabha temple got its wealth not just from royal donations but also from brutal taxes, such as the 'breast tax', levied by the Travancore kings
Thiruvnanthapuram: The recovery of treasure worth over Rs 5 trillion from the vaults of Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram has stunned the nation. Thanks to it, in Kerala's libraries, sections devoted to Travancore history are seeing some action after decades. Interestingly enough, there are plenty of records on the wealth that was unearthed.
The story of how so much wealth flowed into the temple vault begins in the 15th century, when the temple administration was controlled by a closed group, recorded as "ettara yogam" (the council of eight and a half) with eight and a half votes. Of these, eight votes went to seven Pootti (a Brahmin sub-caste) families and one Nair family. The Travancore royals held just half a vote.
This powerful council of eight and a half divided the Travancore region into eight provinces, and the eight lords of Ettuveetil Pilla, a powerful Nair family, was put in charge of each. These eight Nair feudal lords soon became more influential than even the royal family. They were also notorious for their cruelty. History textbooks say that they conspired against the royals, and tried to kill young Marthanda Varma, who had to run away from the palace, and hide among the branches of a huge jackfruit tree. In exile, Marthanda Varma, with help from neighbouring kings, raised an army, attacked and killed all the eight lords, and became the king of Travancore.
Special security force in front of the Sree Ananta Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. PTI
The king went on to fight and win many civil wars. The losers were fined heavily, and most of the fines collected went into the temple treasury. The wealth of the Travancore kingdom during his rule was found to be almost as much as that of the Bourbon Kings in France around the same period.
Though an excellent strategist, Marthanda Varma lacked the infrastructure to defend the wealth and his kingdom against attacks, and so had to rely on the faith surrounding the temple. Therefore, in 1750, he ceded his crown at the feet of the deity in an officially recorded event, known as 'Tripadidanam'. He basically abdicated his throne in favour of Lord Padmanabha, declaring himself and his descendants to be "Padmanabha Dasa", meaning servants of the Padmanabha who would carry out the God's commands. Doing so essentially meant the transfer of the kingdom's wealth to the temple.
With this brilliant move, Marthanda Varma secured his kingdom from possible attacks by his enemies. The neighbouring kings dared not wage war against Travancore, ruled as it was, by the God himself. Instead, they made generous donations to the temple vaults to mollify Padmanabha.
Marthanda Varma renovated the temple and built the massive store rooms under the sanctum sanctorum, which became the vault of the kingdom. Padmanabha thus became the ruler of the land, and his insignia, "Valampiri Shankhu" (a conch-shell) became the state emblem of Travancore.
Officials appointed by the Supreme Court to take stock of the wealth in the temple coming out after completing their job. PTI
Taken from the masses
Historical evidence backs the claim that Marthanda Varma was responsible for most of the wealth found in the recent search. True, the bags of gold coins, diamonds, precious stones, 18-feet-long gold necklaces, jewellery weighing many kilograms, and solid-gold statues of gods and goddesses landed in the vault via the king. But in reality, the temple treasury was nourished by the sweat and blood of the masses.
One of the main sources of the royal income was taxes. They were incredibly high for the lower castes, with marriages, childbirth and even death being taxed. Country boats, ploughs, carts, umbrellas, headscarves, why, even a moustache, were taxed. Mothers were allowed to breastfeed their newborns only after they paid the 'mulakaram' (breast-tax) to the local lord, who would then grant permission.
It took a bloody revolution during the time when the Maathoor Panikkers were the landlords of Kuttanad to stop the breast-tax. The bloodiest story of the protest was of a young woman from Cherthala's Kapunthala family. She breast-fed her child without official sanction and the news reached the ears of the landlord. Enraged, he rushed to the Kapunthala house. The young woman faced him fearlessly, irking him further. He ordered her to pay the tax, and she agreed. She went into the house, and returned with her two breasts chopped. She threw them at the feet of the shocked landlord, collapsed and died.
There is a custom that the members of the royal family follow. As Padmanabhadasas, they consider it their duty to keep the wealth of the deity intact. After every temple visit, they vigorously rub off dust stuck on their feet so that Padmanabha does not lose even a grain of dust that belongs to him! While there's no disputing the fact that the Travancore kings were zealous custodians of the deity's wealth, it is undeniable that the loot is coloured not just by faith, but also by defeats, fears, deaths, conquests, and atonements.
Sources: Mathilakam Records, Kerala Charithram by P Sankunni Menon, Thiruvithaamkoorinte Charithram by A Sreedhara Menon.
Copyright restricted. Under license from www.3dsyndication.com
25. 08. 2005
More FDI, Comrade? West Bengal moves
Guest Column by Aruni Mukherjee
"I must have a breakthrough with this", said West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on August 23rd. On face value, this comment could have easily been attributed to yet another of his government's efforts to pacify the militant trade unions in the state. Surprisingly enough, that is what Mr Bhattacharjee uttered in Bangkok, en route to his meeting with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, eager to attract large chunks of investment from the city-state.
At the moment Chief Minister is on his way to Jakarta, Indonesia to hold talks with the Salem Group of Industries, in a bid to attract hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign direct investment. At the Institute for South Asian Studies in Singapore, he pledged to be "unabashedly reformist" toeing the line set by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Going one step further, the supposedly communist leader also made it clear that West Bengal "must reform or perish".
Stuck with years of Soviet-style baggage that turned the state into "an industrial wasteland", according to the BBC, the state government under Mr Bhattacharjee since 2000 has been systematically trying to open up West Bengal's economy to private investment. In speeches dotted with quotations from the great poet Tagore, the CM re-iterated his point several times that "Bengal is open to all investors" and mistakes of the past will not be repeated. He was received with a standing ovation by the largely industrialist audience.
Perhaps he even surprised himself with some of his comments. When asked whether his government would even consider an investment cap of 50% for infrastructure projects, the CM retorted that he had no objections to a foreign entity owning 100% of the state's ports and airports. There was a caveat though- this arrangement would only extend to the new projects and not the existing ones. For example, the government is planning a second airport in Kolkata city, which would be open to foreign investors. However, in itself this was a significant departure from earlier myopic economic policies.
Mr Bhattacharjee was hitting all the right notes in Singapore. He had an extremely high profile meeting with the Singaporean Prime Minister, with whom he signed two Memorandums of Understanding on health and education. Perhaps even more significantly, he also convinced Premier Loong and his wife Ho Ching, to consider Bengal as an investment avenue and if need be, to visit the state and witness the progress themselves.
Significantly, Ho Ching heads Temasek Holdings, the government's prime investment arm. A popular saying in Singaporean financial circle goes- "Where Temasek goes, the rest of Singapore follows". Moreover, Temasek, along with the Government Investment Corporation was adorned with special privileges during the Singapore India Comprehensive Economic Co-Operation Agreement unveiled in August 1. Mr Bhattacharjee would be looking for Singaporean investment in a range of sectors stretching from information technology to infrastructure development and food processing.
There are reasons to believe that Singapore may be looking at India as an attractive investment destination. In recent months, the economic ties between the countries have flowered well with growing flights between the countries, increasing trade and co-operation in information technology. Singaporean investors have also faced disappointments in certain other markets, and many are yet to emerge from the dot com fiasco in US. Moreover, hundreds of billions of dollars have been lost in the Suzhou Industrial Park in Guangzhou, southern China and Singapore may well be looking to diversify its portfolio.
Sadly enough, the biggest deterrent to Mr Bhattacharjee's dream of foreign investment flying to Bengal is the political atmosphere back home, and not international competitors. First, the politburo of his party- the Communist Party of India (Marxist)- is known to be extremely suspicious of his economic policies. It discredits them as well, since party heavyweights like Mr Prakash Karat and Mr Sitaram Yechuri talk about "barking at" and "biting" the reform process in Delhi, and yet their own party colleague carries out the same policies in his state.
Second, a "political storm" is brewing in West Bengal, as opposition parties and coalition partners become equally vociferous in their opposition of these moves to woo foreign investors. Debabrata Bandopadhyay of the Revolutionary Socialist Party threatened, "We shall not allow multinationals to invest here, come what may". His rhetoric was aimed at the planned Rupees 5.1 billion investment in a Special Economic Zone by the Salem Group in the state. Their main objection is their ardent belief that the government is uprooting peasants in order to provide land for the companies.
Perhaps the storm will be smothered- at least enough for Mr Bhattacharjee to save face in his foreign meetings. Anil Biswas, a party bigwig, argued that "the government's efforts are in no way [a] deviation from the Left Front's poll manifesto of 2001". He also maintained that only mono-crop and infertile land is being transferred to the investors. He was advocating an en masse shift of population from agriculture to manufacturing/service industries for which the government was seeking investment. Ironically, such arguments have long been forwarded by economists, and long ignored by the same cadres. This exemplifies that Bengal is indeed looking down the barrel- it must reform to survive.
Mr Bhattacharjee is no doubt sincere about his intentions for the state, as he goes from country to country (he visited Italy and South Africa last year), and at the doors of corporation to corporation to showcase the improvements made by the state in industrial relations and economic atmosphere per se. To be fair to him, change- and visible change at that- is evident in West Bengal, most notably in Kolkata, as newly affluent middle classes adorn the shopping complexes and cinema halls.
However, finance capital is a coward. It looks for the greatest host and the safest house- and two strikes on August 24th by taxi drivers and student unions does not do anything to reassure them that the red flag of Marxism will not engulf their greenbacks if they put them in Bengal. The Chief Minister talked of learning from China- try telling the cadres that!
The author is based at the University of Warwick and takes a deep interest in the political economy of the Indian sub-continent.
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers16%5Cpaper1518.html
MAINSTREAM, VOL. XLIX, NO 29, JULY 9, 2011
The Left in India: A Critical Appraisal
Kripa Shankar
In the pre-independence period, the Communist Party of India had emerged as the main Left party although quite weak but conspicuous by its dedicated cadres who, by their immense sacrifice, had built bases among industrial workers and peasants. Their fight against the feudal elements led to a powerful base among peasantry in many pockets. Communism had an appeal among intellectuals and some top intellectuals were closely associated with the movement. The success of the Soviet Union in turning a backward country into a fast-moving egalitarian society with no unemployment and other evils of a capitalist society had influenced the leadership of the Congress as well and it also swore by planning as a way to reconstruct the country after the British would depart. Gandhi had emerged as the supreme leader of the nationalist movement for freedom as, among other things, he was fiercely opposed to the Western capitalist civilisation which had no value system except greed, accumulation and oppression. His opposition was so total that he would likeIndia to return to the pre-feudal communitarian order with no machine production where village communities governed the society in a harmonious manner. Communism has a more scientific approach to the same quest. By harnessing the forces of production, not for individual profit but for common good, by eliminating private ownership over means of production and with the help of sophisticated technology, mankind could meet the physical needs of every individual and it would open the gates for his intellectual and spiritual advance-ment. Man would stand liberated for the first time.
The greatness of Gandhi lay in evolving a technique of mass mobilisation in the liberation struggle where the vast exploited peasantry and other sections of society could come forward to challenge the British rule. Satyagraha and civil disobedience had a vast appeal as it suited the genius of the people who wanted to protest and fight but had no instrument. Gandhi could bring the entire Indian humanity into the vortex of the freedom struggle which was unprecedented.
•
GANDHI, all the same, was the leader of the colonial bourgeoisie which had its genesis in the colonial order that had various strata of exploiters and vested interests. The landlords, moneylenders, traders in agricultural and other commodities and bureaucracy were the privileged groups. Being the product of the colonial set-up its interests lay not in dismantling that order but in striving for some political space within that order. It never intended to confront the British. When Gandhi emerged on the scene and made the Congress a mass organisation through his unique techniques of Satyagraha and mass civil disobedience, he used it as pressure tactics. In 1922 when during the civil disobedience movement he found that the masses were likely to assume the leadership and the movement may take the shape of an upheaval against the colonial set-up, he was so scared that not only did he withdraw the movement to the dismay of all patriotic forces, but publicly announced that his call for civil disobedience was a "Himalayan blunder".1 Gandhi did not talk of any mass struggle afterwards and only during the Second World War when the Cripps Mission failed, he gave the slogan of 'Do or Die' only to pressurise the government but did not spell out as to what the people should do to accomplish it. And within a week after his arrest he wrote to the Viceroy that he intended to meet him after the 'Quit India' resolution was passed and was sure that some understanding would have been reached but his arrest pre-empted this possibility.
The point that is being conveyed is that as the Congress did not want to launch any struggle as such, the Communists could come up to the forefront of the movement had they supported it. The 1942 movement was taken up by the people as a clarion call for final emancipation of the country and in many places British rule ended for a few days. But the Communists were found opposing this movement at the bidding of the Soviet Union.
The tragedy of the communist movement has been that its leadership had completely subordinated itself to the dictates of the Soviet Union thinking that any directive from it was the last wisdom and the Communists have no other task but to faithfully implement it. When in June 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union, it (the CPI) declared that the character of the war had changed from an imperialist war to a people's one and the task of the IndianCommunists was to support the war efforts. The Communists did so at huge cost. They were isolated from the masses. If Britain was fighting a people's war, why was it not transferring political power to the Indians? Similarly what prevented it from opening a 'second front' against Germany?
There was no answer to such questions. An independent India would not have weakened the fight against fascism but would have strengthened it. Be that as it may, the Communists lost a big opportunity of coming up as a powerful political force unlike the Communist Party of China which, by opposing Japanese imperialism, became a formidable force and ultimately seized power.
After the end of the Second World War, although the Soviet Union emerged victorious, yet it found that all the imperialist powers were conspiring to weaken it. In 1948 the Soviet Union took the line that the final struggle between capitalism and socialism had begun and all the Communist Parties have to initiate the final assault against their governments which should take the shape of armed struggle in a country like India where running dogs of imperialism were in power, according to its formulation. The orthodoxy in the CPI was such that the more faithfully one stood for and implemented the Soviet line, the more revolutionary leader he was. There was some resistance to this adventurist— almost suicidal—line, but all such elements were denounced as cowards and expelled. But then came a bolt from the blue.
The Soviet Union, which hitherto considered governments in newly independent countries as lackeys of imperialism, revised its line. It found that such governments were willing to cooperate with the Soviet Union for their economic development and wanted to befriend it and were for increasing collaboration with it. Hence they were not lackeys of imperialism and should be supported in their effort to modernise their economy. Now the Communist Parties were required to support the bourgeois govern-ments in newly independent countries. This came in the form of a directive published in For a Lasting Peace, For People's Democracy in January 1950 which was, for all practical purposes, the central organ of the international communist movement in the early fifties. The article mentioned by name the Communist Party of India that it should now form an alliance with the national bourgeoisie to oppose the machinations of the imperialists and their native allies.
Following the Soviet directive, the CPI now entered a new phase of supporting the Congress Government at the Centre. Gone was the vision of overthrowing the bourgeois government and of smashing the state structure as a precondition for ushering in a proletarian revolution. Under the new dispensation joining bourgeois govern-ments, if the opportunity arose, was the preferred destination. It was a U-turn for a party of revolution to be turned into a party of the Establishment not for furthering any revolutionary causes but simply because the Soviet Union had so directed it.
China, which had emerged as another centre of communist power, wanted to have hegemony over the communist movement and with this end in view it was willing to divide the movement. The Communist Party of India was an easy target as a large section of it considered the Chinese path of revolution to be more relevant for India as both were agrarian economies dominated by imperialist powers. China denounced the Soviet Union as revisionist and social imperialist and gave a call for a split in the CPI. Like any middle-class party the CPI was not above factions and without any reason or rhyme a big section came out of the CPI to form a new party to be called Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM). There was no ideological issue involved in the division. It was a part of the same old story. Communists in India have to abide by what the communist powers dictate. Yesterday it was the prerogative of the Soviet Union alone and now it was the Communist Party of China (CPC) as a rival centre of communist power. Soon after the split the Communist Party of China wanted the Indian Communists to take to armed struggle as it considered the Indianbourgeoisie to be its enemy. The CPM could not go the whole hog with this line although a small group, later known as the Naxalbari group, gave a call for armed struggle and coined the slogan China's Chairman (Comrade Mao) is our Chairman" which later on was withdrawn as the CPC did not approve of it.
•
ALL this shows that if one were to ask as to what has been the chief characteristic of the communist movement in India, the answer is that it was to blindly follow the dictates of the Soviet Union or China like religious fanatics without applying any reason whatsoever or analysing the objective reality in the false belief that the former are doing what can be done to promote revolution whereas actually they were only pursuing their country's self-interest that had nothing to do with promoting revolution. In order to justify the new line of supporting the bourgeois government in India, the Soviet Union had propounded a false theory to the effect that the bourgeoisie is divided into two broad groups. One is comprador which wants to ally with imperialism and the other one is nationalist which is fighting imperialism. Hence Communists should support the latter so that the former may not take over the state. Now in the phase of globalisation no one can agree to this absurd formulation. But the CPI and CPM could not question it as this proposition came from the Soviet Union. Secondly, changing this line would have meant confronting the bourgeoisie and its government and adopting the path of struggle for which the CPI and CPM were not prepared because they had metamorphosed into parties of the Establishment during this long period of collaboration with the bourgeoisie. This resulted in such degeneration that in West Bengal, where it was in absolute power for more than three decades, it only ended up as the party of the status quo.
The CPM, which had a strong base in West Bengal, emerged as the ruling party and formed the government in 1977 in coalition with smaller Left parties. Having an absolute majority it was expected that the CPM would chart an alternative path of development in the given situation and thus the Left in Indiawill eventually emerge as the galvanising force of all the Left and democratic forces to challenge the rule of the bourgeoisie. But the saddest part of the story is that the Left Front did nothing to initiate such a path. This required, in the first instance, that the people should be empowered to take their destiny in their own hands and the bureaucracy, which now stands above the people, should be shown the door. Fortunately this became easier when under the 73rd Amendment of the Constitution in 1992 village Panchayats and municipalities were to be endowed by law by the State governments with such power and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self- government with respect to "(a) the preparation for plans of economic development and social justice; (b) the implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice…" as enshrined in Sections 343G and 243W of the Constitution. The Eleventh and Twelfth Schedules were incor-porated in the Constitution which enumerated 29 activities to be implemented by the Panchayats and 18 activities to be implemented by the municipalities.
In other States the political leadership along with the bureaucracy was fiercely opposed to devolution as it impacted on their power. But what is most surprising is the fact that the Left Front Government was almost equally opposed to endow them with power or funds except in a very limited manner. The allocation of funds also remained minuscule hovering around less than one per cent of the revenue expenditure. The expenditure on the police had generally been five times higher than what was allocated as assignments and compensation to local bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions in West Bengal. Significantly, the expenditure on the police had been higher than the combined expenditure on agriculture and all allied activities like animal husbandry, soil and water conser-vation, dairy, fishery, forestry, storage, cooperation, agricultural research, minor irrigation and flood control. The expenditure on the police was generally three times higher than on industry and minerals. It was also generally two-and-a-half times than on power. The State has the highest debt per capita among the major States and on account of the high debt the annual interest payment took away nearly one-third of the annual revenue of the State leaving little for developmental activities which was quite low on per capita basis among the major States. Unlike some other States it had been loathe in taxing the better-off sections. This had created a situation where it only cajoled the bog corporate houses, both internal and foreign, to make investment and in order to woo them it could go to any extent as in Nandigram. Even simple measures which could help the poor could not be taken. For example, if the poor could get hassle-free bank loans, say, at three per cent, as is the case in Karnataka regarding farmers, the poor, who are indebted to moneylenders, could come out of their clutches and make small investments in animal husbandry, fisheries and other income generating activities. This would involve giving interest subvention to the banks as they usually lend at 14 per cent. But the scheme did not find favour with the Left Front Government.
•
THE CPM, which has been the biggest Left formation, can now no longer be said to be a party of the Left. It is a part of the Establishment and serves the vested interest. The Maoist party, which is a radical Left party, has taken to armed struggle not because the situation is ripe for it but Mao had said that power comes from the barrel of the gun. The tribal belt in India is on the radar of national and international capital on account of its mineral wealth. The tribal livelihood is at stake and the fight must go on but armed struggle will only help the govern-ment in crushing the movement.
The Left has failed but the Left must succeed. What is necessary is to organise a new Left party which should not be guided by dogma and received knowledgebut should have the capacity to think and act accordingly. Capitalism cannot deliver the goods, more so in a country like India which had been ravaged under colonial rule. With no value system it cannot produce a better man. It has only turned man into a wolf to another man. It has failed to create a sane society and mankind will continue to struggle for a better world.
The whole ethos of the Indian people is against capitalism and if there is an organised party of the Left it can mobilise the entire people against this system. What is needed is continuous mobilisation and struggle of the masses on specific issues. It should be clearly recognised that it will be mass mobilisation that will be instrumental in bringing about a change and not exclusively electoral politics. While there would be no call for boycott of elections and the people will be asked to electorally defeat reactionary parties that stand for the status quo, all the same the people will be called upon to come out on the streets for bringing about a change. How things will unfold is in the realm of the future but the new Left should not be bogged down in the mire of elections. The ruling classes create the illusion that the masses should wait for the next election and should do nothing in the meanwhile as they can change the government through elections. That myth should be broken. Only a sustained mass mobilisation and unrelenting struggle can create a situation wherein the ruling class can be dethroned.
FOOTNOTE
1. The peasants in Chauri Chaura in eastern UP organised a peaceful dharna and in the evening began to return to their respective homes. The station officer of Chauri Chaura police station was away at the district headquarters in connection with some case and when he returned he found that peasants had organised a dharna and they were the returning. He ordered the police to fire on the returning peasants from behind and about a half-a-dozen died on the spot. This infuriated the peasants who marched back to the police station. All the bullets had already been used and this forced the police personnel to lock themselves in a room. The infuriated farmers torched the room by pouring kerosene and some policemen were burnt alive. This led Gandhi to withdraw the movement and call it a Himalayan blunder to have started this movement. Had the bullets not been exhausted hundreds would have been killed. Gandhi explained that in no case violence can be countenanced on the part of the people. If Gandhi was such a votary of non-violence why did he ask the people to join the First World War? Was it being fought for non-violence? Gandhi never called that a mistake on his part.
Dr Kripa Shankar an Honorary Fellow, G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad. Earlier he was a wholetime worker of the Communist Party of Indiafor nearly three decades.
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UID, queues and zoozoos
In not so distant a future, India will be more in the hands of professionals rather than politicians
Method and Manner | Haseeb A Drabu
Neighbours: Its two neighbours, China and Pakistan, are a source of great angst for India. While Pakistan is a perennial security irritant—having implications on the stability and certainty of doing business in India—the panda has been giving the tiger sleepless nights by setting a scorching pace of economic growth, creating infrastructural availability and cornering of markets globally.
Realistically, India is no competition to China, but it is fashionable to talk of India and China in the same league.
Also Read | Haseeb A. Drabu's previous columns
Oil: The old adage that Indian economy is a gamble with the monsoons can now be changed to one that it is now a gamble with the oil prices. Oil prices are now the most critical determinants of inflation and growth. Not only does it work its way through the supply side of the economic system, it also makes a major dent in the fiscal balance.
Professionals: It may not be fully evident yet, but the major change that is taking place in India is that it is becoming a country of professionals. In not so distant a future, it will be more in the hands of professionals rather than politicians. This is not so because some professionals have become politicians, but because market professionals and industrial leaders dominate the economic scene now.
Queues: One thing that has disappeared in the post-reform era are the long serpentine queues. Be it for a consumer durable such as a car, or for utility connections and refills such as gas and telephone, or for essentials such as milk. Money can now be used legitimately, over the table, to jump the queue and buy privileged access, be it tatkal services in passports, trains and telephones.
Resources: The biggest deficit that threatens India's sustained long-term growth is the natural resources deficit. India's 9% growth is bound to be thwarted by lack of raw materials unless global resource bases are accessed on a long-term basis. The situation in the commodity markets the world over is so bad that it is taking geo-political overtones.
Scams: The new economy, contrary to the theoretical literature and expectations, has been full of scams. Starting with the scams in the equity markets, these moved on to the broader financial markets, to the corporate sector and finally to the government's decisions in the deregulated industries. If one were to run a statistical correlation between the incidence and extent of liberalization, it will be difficult to argue that the two are not linked.
Telecom: One of the biggest symbols of new India is telecom; as much in real provision of services as in the scam part of it. This sector and its policy management reflects the microcosmic reality of new India where Lucifer and the archangel have both been at work. Notwithstanding the heads that have rolled on its account, the mobile phone services have transformed lives and business of millions.
UID: Quite apart from the size, scale and complexity of the data collection, database management which is unparalleled in the world, giving a unique identification number to every Indian resident will change the course and contours of policymaking and improve the delivery of public services. Its significance lies in addressing the most basic structural issue of India: lack of "access". So far, too much attention has been focused on "entitlement". UID by improving "access" to services and resources—food, health, finance, education, employment—will change the "entitlements" as these are driven by access.
Water: With one-third of the households not having access to safe drinking water, and 50% of the villages having no source of protected drinking water, India is a severely water-stressed economy. In a list of 122 countries rated on the quality of potable drinking water, India ranked a lowly 120.
X-factor: Demographic dividend, knowledge base, technology skills are all advantages that make the India story. But the X-factor still is, what it was 50 years ago: the growth of the economy continues to be based on domestic demand and consumption rather than manufacturing-driven export growth. It is the home market advantage that still propels the overall economic growth and also helps India cruise at a healthy rate of growth in an uncertain world.
Youngistan: It may have been a glib ad line, but as it turned out, it actually represents the demographics of the country. India is the youngest nation in the world. With 600 million people below 25 and nearly 800 million below 35. Over the next decade the average age of an Indian will be just 29 years, compared with 37 for China and 48 for Japan.
Zoozoo: It is a telling sign of times that the advertisement character, which has overtaken the "utterly-butterly" pigtailed girl of home-grown cooperative Amul in mass appeal, is the Zoozoos promoted by a global conglomerate Vodafone. The Zoozoos text, mail, date, and game, just like the new age Indian, even as the little girl, is still caught up in making political puns. Note: This is the last part of the three- part series on the lexicon of the new Indian economy.
Haseeb A. Drabu is an economist, and writes on monetary and macroeconomic matters from the perspective of policy and practice. Comment are welcome at haseeb@livemint.com
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Knowledge economy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia* This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)
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The knowledge economy is a term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledgetechnologies (such as knowledge engineering and knowledge management) to produce economicbenefits as well as job creation. The phrase was popularized by Peter Drucker as the title of Chapter 12 in his book The Age of Discontinuity, And, with a footnote in the text, Drucker attributes the phrase to economist Fritz Machlup.[1]
The essential difference is that in a knowledge economy, knowledge is a product, while in a knowledge-based economy, knowledge is a tool. This difference is not yet well distinguished in the subject matter literature. They both are strongly interdisciplinary, involving economists, computer scientists, engineers, mathematicians, geographers, chemists and physicists, as well as cognitivists, psychologists and sociologists.
Various observers describe today's global economy as one in transition to a "knowledge economy," as an extension of an "information society." The transition requires that the rules and practices that determined success in the industrial economy need rewriting in an interconnected, globalized economy where knowledge resources such as know-how and expertise are as critical as other economic resources. According to analysts of the "knowledge economy," these rules need to be rewritten at the levels of firms and industries in terms of knowledge management and at the level of public policy as knowledge policy or knowledge-related policy.[citation needed]- A business product, as educational and innovative intellectual products and services can be exported for a high value return.
- A productive asset
- Globalization — markets and products are more global.
- Information technology, which is related to next three:
- Information/Knowledge Intensity — efficient production relies on information and know-how; over 70 per cent of workers in developed economies are information workers;[citation needed] many factory workers use their heads more than their hands.
- New Media – New media increases the production and distribution of knowledge which in turn, results in collective intelligence. Existing knowledge becomes much easier to access as a result of networked data-bases which promote online interaction between users and producers.
- Computer networking and Connectivity – developments such as the Internet bring the "global village" ever nearer.
- The economics are not of scarcity, but rather of abundance. Unlike most resources that become depleted when used, information and knowledge can be shared, and actually grow through application.
- The effect of location is either
- diminished, in some economic activities: using appropriate technology and methods, virtual marketplaces and virtual organizations that offer benefits of speed, agility, round the clock operation and global reach can be created.
- or, on the contrary, reinforced in some other economic fields, by the creation of business clusters around centres of knowledge, such as universities and research centres. However, clusters already existed in pre-knowledge economy times.
- Laws, barriers, taxes and ways to measure are difficult to apply solely on a national basis. Knowledge and information "leak" to where demand is highest and the barriers are lowest.
- Knowledge enhanced products or services can command price premiums over comparable products with low embedded knowledge or knowledge intensity.
- Pricing and value depends heavily on context. Thus the same information or knowledge can have vastly different value to different people, or even to the same person at different times.
- Knowledge when locked into systems or processes has higher inherent value than when it can "walk out of the door" in people's heads.
- Human capital — competencies — are a key component of value in a knowledge-based company, yet few companies report competency levels in annual reports. In contrast, downsizing is often seen as a positive "cost cutting" measure.
- Communication is increasingly being seen as fundamental to knowledge flows. Social structures, cultural context and other factors influencing social relations are therefore of fundamental importance to knowledge economies.
- ^ Peter Drucker, (1969). The Age of Discontinuity; Guidelines to Our Changing Society. Harper and Row, New York. ISBN 0-465-08984-4
- ^ Terry Flew (2008), New Media: An Introduction
- ^ Knowledge for Development - About
- ^ The Four Pillars of The Knowledge Economy
- ^ "Knowledge for Development".
- ^ Benchmarking countries in the knowledge economy: presentation of the Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM). Knowledge for development program, World Bank Institute, 2004, pg 4
- ^ Michael Porter, "Clusters and the New Economics of Competition." Harvard Business Review.
- ^ The Brookings Institution. MetroPolicy: Shaping A New Federal Partnership for a Metropolitan Nation Report. (2008)
- ^ UNCSTD (1997). United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development, - Report of the Working Group on ICTs for Development prepared for the 3rd Session, 12 May, Geneva, Switzerland
- Arthur, W. B. (1996). Increasing Returns and the New World of Business. Harvard Business Review(July/August), 100–109.
- Bell, D. (1974). The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. London: Heinemann.
- Drucker, P. (1969). The Age of Discontinuity; Guidelines to Our changing Society. New York: Harper and Row.
- Drucker, P. (1993). Post-Capitalist Society. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
- Machlup, F. (1962). The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Porter, M. E. Clusters and the New Economics of Competition. Harvard Business Review. (Nov-Dec 1998). 77-90.
- Romer, P. M. (1986). Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth. Journal of Political Economy, 94(5), 1002–1037.
- Rooney, D., Hearn, G., Mandeville, T., & Joseph, R. (2003). Public Policy in Knowledge-Based Economies: Foundations and Frameworks. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- Rooney, D., Hearn, G., & Ninan, A. (2005). Handbook on the Knowledge Economy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
- The Brookings Institution. MetroPolicy: Shaping A New Federal Partnership for a Metropolitan Nation. Metropolitan Policy Program Report. (2008). 4-103.
- Knowledge for Development Program, World Bank
- Colloquium
- IS-Driven Organizational Responsiveness in a Knowledge Economy
- Public Service Modernization Act – Canada
- MTI
- EnterWeb
- Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Information Economy (Wikibook)
- BOOK: The Knowledge-Based Economy in Central and East European Countries
- Recent book: Knowledge and innovation processes in Central and East European economies
- The Work Foundation Knowledge Economy Programme
- Knowledge Economy in Farsi/Persian
- Pacioli Institute for a true and fair view of the knowledge-based economy
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[edit]Concepts
A key concept of the knowledge economy is that knowledge and education (often referred to as "human capital") can be treated as one of the following two:It can be defined as
" The concept that supports creation of knowledge by organizational employees and helps and encourages them to transfer and better utilize their knowledge that is in line with company/organization goals "
The initial foundation for the Knowledge Economy was first introduced in 1966 in the book The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. In this book, Drucker described the difference between the manual worker (page 2) and the knowledge worker. The manual worker, according to him, works with his hands and produces goods or services. In contrast, a knowledge worker (page 3) works with his or her head not hands, and produces ideas, knowledge, and information.
The key problem in the formalization and modeling of knowledge economy, is a vague definition of knowledge, which is a rather relative concept. For example, it is not proper to consider information society as interchangeable with knowledge society. Information is usually not equivalent to knowledge. Their use, as well, depends on individual and group preferences (see the cognitive IPK model) – which are "economy-dependent".[2]
[edit]Definition
To participate in the knowledge economy trade[3] the World Bank provides four core requirements [4] in their Knowledge Assessment Methodology that a country must have. The World Bank defines the requirements as having sound institutional and economic regime, education system, and telecommunications infrastructure, and an Innovative System.[5][6][edit]Evolution
The knowledge economy is also seen as the latest stage of development in global economic restructuring. Thus far, the developed world has transitioned from an agricultural economy (pre-Industrial Age, largely the agrarian sector) to industrial economy (with the Industrial Age, largely the manufacturing sector) to post-industrial/mass production economy (mid-1900s, largely the service sector) to knowledge economy (late 1900s – 2000s, largely the technology/human capital sector). This latest stage has been marked by the upheavals in technological innovations and the globally competitive need for innovation with new products and processes that develop from the research community (i.e., R&D factors, universities, labs, educational institutes).In the knowledge economy, the specialized labor force is characterized as computer literate and well-trained in handling data, developing algorithms and simulated models, and innovating on processes and systems. Harvard Business School Professor, Michael Porter asserts that today's economy is far more dynamic and that comparative advantage is less relevant than competitive advantage which rests on "making more productive use of inputs, which requires continual innovation." [7] Consequently, the technical, STEM careers including computer scientists, engineers, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, and scientific inventors will see continuous demand in years to come. Additionally, well-situated clusters, which Michael Porter argues is vital in global economies, connect locally with linked industries, manufacturers, and other entities that are related by skills, technologies, and other common inputs. Hence, knowledge is the catalyst and connective tissue in modern economies.
With earth's depleting natural resources, the need for green infrastructure, a logistics industry forced into just-in-time deliveries, growing global demand, regulatory policy governed by performance results, and a host of other items high priority is put on knowledge; and research becomes paramount. Knowledge provides the technical expertise, problem-solving, performance measurement and evaluation, and data management needed for the transboundary, interdisciplinary global scale of today's competition.[8]
Worldwide examples of the knowledge economy taking place among many others include: Silicon Valley in California; aerospace and automotive engineering in Munich, Germany; biotechnology in Hyderabad, India; electronics and digital media in Seoul, South Korea;petrochemical and energy industry in Brazil.
[edit]Driving forces
Commentators suggest there are various interlocking driving forces, which are changing the rules of business and national competitiveness:As a result, goods and services can be developed, bought, sold, and in many cases even delivered over electronic networks.
As regards the applications of any new technology, this depends on how it meets economic demand. It can remain dormant or make a commercial breakthrough (see diffusion of innovation).
[edit]Characteristics
It can be argued that the knowledge economy differs from the traditional economy in several key respects:These characteristics require new ideas and approaches from policy makers, managers and knowledge workers.
The knowledge economy has manifold forms in which it may appear but there are predictions that the new economy will extend radically, creating a pattern in which even ideas will be recognised and identified as a commodity. This certainly is not the best time to make any hasty judgment on this contention, but considering the very nature of 'knowledge' itself, added to the fact that it is the thrust of this new form of economy, there certainly is a clear way forward for this notion, though the particulars (i.e. the quantum of the revolutionary approach and its applicability and commercial value),remain in the speculative realm, as of now.
[edit]Technology
| * | This section relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Please help improve this articleby introducing appropriate citations to additional sources. (July 2011) |
The technology requirements for an Innovative System as described by the World Bank Institute must be able to disseminate a unified process by which a working method may combine scientific and technology solutions, and organizational solutions. According to the World Bank Institute's definition, such innovation would further enable the World Bank Institute's vision outlined in their Millennium Development Goals.
[edit]Challenges for Developing Countries
The United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development report (UNCSTD, 1997)[9] concluded that for developing countries to successfully integrate ICTs and sustainable development in order to participate in the knowledge economy they need to intervene collectively and strategically. Such collective intervention suggested would be in the development of effective national ICT policies that support the new regulatory framework, promote the selected knowledge production, and use of ICTs and harness their organizational changes to be in line with the Millennium Development Goals. The report further suggests that developing countries to develop the required ICT strategies and policies for institutions and regulations taking into account the need to be responsive to the issues of convergence.[edit]See also
[edit]References
[edit]Bibliography
[edit]External links
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- National pharmaceuticals policy
- Opium and Alkaloid Works
- ^ "Pharma to topple IT as big paymaster". The Economic Times. Retrieved 8 Jun 2010.
- ^ "Indian biotech industry grew 17 percent in 2009-10: Survey". Economic Times. 21 June 2010. Retrieved 21 Jun 2010.
- ^ "Understanding the WTO - Intellectual property: protection and enforcement". WTO. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Serum Institute of India | Manufacturer of Vaccines & immuno-biologicals - GMP Vaccine Manufacturer". Seruminstitute.com. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Nectar Lifesciences Ltd.: Nurturing. Enriching. Caring". Neclife.com. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ http://macleodspharma.com
- ^ "Bharat Serums and Vaccines - plasma, pharma and biotechnology products". Bharatserums.com. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "India : Pharmaceuticals Business, pharmaceutical company india, pharma outsourcing india, pharmaceuticals brand, pharmaceuticals intellectual property, pharmaceutical formulations, vaccines, natural products". Panacea Biotec. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ amnpharmaceuticals.com. "Pharmaceutical Companies in India". Amnpharmaceuticals.com. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Welcome To Ajanta Pharma". Ajantapharma.com. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Welcome to Green Apple Lifesciences Limited". Greenapple.co.in. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
- ^ "Reliance Life Sciences :: Reliance Industries :: Reliance Group". Rellife.com. Retrieved 2010-07-27.
[show]v · d · ePharmaceutical industry by country
Categories: Healthcare in India | Pharmacy in India | Pharmaceutical industry of India
Jul 8, 2011 Indian Express (29 occurrences)
more by Kapil Sibal
Pharmaceuticals in India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  * | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. |
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the world's second-largest by volume and is likely to lead the manufacturing sector of India.[1]India's bio-tech industry clocked a 17 percent growth with revenues of Rs.137 billion ($3 billion) in the 2009-10 financial year over the previous fiscal. Bio-pharma was the biggest contributor generating 60 percent of the industry's growth at Rs.8,829 crore, followed by bio-services at Rs.2,639 crore and bio-agri at Rs.1,936 crore.[2] The first pharmaceutical company are Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Works, which still exists today as one of 5 government-owned drug manufacturers, appeared in Calcutta in 1930. For the next 60 years, most of the drugs in India were imported by multinationals either in fully formulated or bulk form. The government started to encourage the growth of drug manufacturing by Indian companies in the early 1960s, and with the Patents Act in 1970, enabled the industry to become what it is today. This patent act removed composition patents from food and drugs, and though it kept process patents, these were shortened to a period of five to seven years. The lack of patent protection made the Indian market undesirable to the multinational companies that had dominated the market, and while they streamed out, Indian companies started to take their places. They carved a niche in both the Indian and world markets with their expertise in reverse-engineering new processes for manufacturing drugs at low costs. Although some of the larger companies have taken baby steps towards drug innovation, the industry as a whole has been following this business model until the present.
[edit]The Indian pharmaceutical industry (IPo) today
[edit]Statistics
| Rank | Company | Revenue 2010(Rs crore) | Revenue 2010(Rs billion) |
| 1 | 4,198.96 | 41.989 | |
| 2 | 4,162.25 | 41.622 | |
| 3 | 3,763.72 | 37.637 | |
| 4 | 2,463.59 | 24.635 | |
| 5 | 2,215.52 | 22.155 | |
| 6 | 2,081.19 | 20.801 | |
| 7 | 1,773.41 | 17.734 | |
| 8 | 1,613 | 16.13 | |
| 9 | 983.80 | 9.838 | |
| 10 | 980.44 | 9.8044 |
In 2002, over 20,000 registered drug manufacturers in India sold $9 billion worth of formulations and bulk drugs. 85% of these formulations were sold in India while over 60% of the bulk drugs were exported, mostly to the United States and Russia[25]. Most of the players in the market are small-to-medium enterprises; 250 of the largest companies control 70% of the Indian market [1]. Thanks to the 1970 Patent Act, multinationals represent only 35% of the market, down from 70% thirty years ago[20].
Most pharma companies operating in India, even the multinationals, employ Indians almost exclusively from the lowest ranks to high level management. Mirroring the social structure, firms are very hierarchical. Homegrown pharmaceuticals, like many other businesses in India, are often a mix of public and private enterprise. Although many of these companies are publicly owned, leadership passes from father to son and the founding family holds a majority share.
In terms of the global market, India currently holds a modest 1-2% share, but it has been growing at approximately 10% per year[27]. India gained its foothold on the global scene with its innovatively engineered generic drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), and it is now seeking to become a major player in outsourced clinical research as well as contract manufacturing and research. There are 74 U.S. FDA-approved manufacturing facilities in India, more than in any other country outside the U.S, and in 2005, almost 20% of all Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDA) to the FDA are expected to be filed by Indian companies[21,27]. Growth in other fields notwithstanding, generics are still a large part of the picture. London research company Global Insight estimates that India's share of the global generics market will have risen from 4% to 33% by 2007[27].
[edit]Patents
As it expands its core business, the industry is being forced to adapt its business model to recent changes in the operating environment. The first and most significant change was the January 1, 2005 enactment of an amendment to India's patent law that reinstated product patents for the first time since 1972. The legislation took effect on the deadline set by the WTO's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, which mandated patent protection on both products and processes for a period of 20 years. Under this new law, India will be forced to recognize not only new patents but also any patents filed after January 1, 1995.[3] Indian companies achieved their status in the domestic market by breaking these product patents, and it is estimated that within the next few years, they will lose $650 million of the local generics market to patent-holders[42].In the domestic market, this new patent legislation has resulted in fairly clear segmentation. The multinationals narrowed their focus onto high-end patients who make up only 12% of the market, taking advantage of their newly bestowed patent protection. Meanwhile, Indian firms have chosen to take their existing product portfolios and target semi-urban and rural populations[45].
[edit]Product development
Indian companies are also starting to adapt their product development processes to the new environment. For years, firms have made their ways into the global market by researching generic competitors to patented drugs and following up with litigation to challenge the patent. This approach remains untouched by the new patent regime and looks to increase in the future. However, those that can afford it have set their sights on an even higher goal: new molecule discovery. Although the initial investment is huge, companies are lured by the promise of hefty profit margins and the recognition as a legitimate competitor in the global industry. Local firms have slowly been investing more money into their R&D programs or have formed alliances to tap into these opportunities.[edit]Small and medium enterprises
As promising as the future is for a whole, the outlook for small and medium enterprises (SME) is not as bright. The excise structure changed so that companies now have to pay a 16% tax on the maximum retail price (MRP) of their products, as opposed to on the ex-factory price. Consequently, larger companies are cutting back on outsourcing and what business is left is shifting to companies with facilities in the four tax-free states - Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttaranchal and Jharkhand.[12]Consequently a large number of pharmaceutical manufacturers shifted their plant to these states, as it became almost impossible to continue operating in non tax free zones. But in a matter of a couple of years the excise duty was revised on two occasions, first it was reduced to 8% and then to 4%. As a result the benefits of shifting to a tax free zone was negated. This resulted in, factories in the tax free zones, to start up third party manufacturing. Under this these factories produced goods under the brand names of other parties on job work basis.As SMEs wrestled with the tax structure, they were also scrambling to meet the July 1 deadline for compliance with the revised Schedule M Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). While this should be beneficial to consumers and the industry at large, SMEs have been finding it difficult to find the funds to upgrade their manufacturing plants, resulting in the closure of many facilities. Others invested the money to bring their facilities to compliance, but these operations were located in non-tax-free states, making it difficult to compete in the wake of the new excise tax.
[edit]Challenges
All of these changes are ultimately good for the Indian pharmaceutical industry, which suffered in the past from inadequate regulation and large quantities of spurious drugs. They force the industry to reach a level necessary for global competitiveness. However, they have also exposed some of the inadequacies in the industry today. Its main weakness is an underdeveloped new molecule discovery program. Even after the increased investment, market leaders such as Ranbaxy and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories spent only 5-10% of their revenues on R&D, lagging behind Western pharmaceuticals like Pfizer, whose research budget last year was greater than the combined revenues of the entire Indian pharmaceutical industry[13, 37]. This disparity is too great to be explained by cost differentials, and it comes when advances in genomics have made research equipment more expensive than ever. The drug discovery process is further hindered by a dearth of qualified molecular biologists. Due to the disconnect between curriculum and industry, pharmas in India also lack the academic collaboration that is crucial to drug development in the West[13].[edit]R&D
Both the Indian central and state governments have recognized R&D as an important driver in the growth of their pharma businesses and conferred tax deductions for expenses related to research and development. They have granted other concessions as well, such as reduced interest rates for export financing and a cut in the number of drugs under price control. Government support is not the only thing in Indian pharma's favor, though; companies also have access to a highly developed IT industry that can partner with them in new molecule discovery.[edit]Labor force
India's greatest strengths lie in its people. India also boasts of well-educated, English-speaking labor force that is the base of its competitive advantage. Although molecular biologists are in short supply, there are a number of talented chemists who are equally as important in the discovery process. In addition, there has been a reverse brain drain effect in which scientists are returning from abroad to accept positions at lower salaries at Indian companies. Once there, these foreign-trained scientists can transfer the benefits of their knowledge and experience to all of those who work with them[13,25]. India's wealth of people extends benefits to another part of the drug commercialization process as well. With one of the largest and most genetically diverse populations in any single country, India can recruit for clinical trials more quickly and perform them more cheaply than countries in the West[47]. Indian firms have just recently started to leverage.[edit]Biotechnology
[edit]Relationship between pharmaceuticals and biotechnology
Unlike in other countries, the difference between biotechnology and pharmaceuticals remains fairly defined in India. Bio-tech there still plays the role of pharma's little sister, but many outsiders have high expectations for the future. India accounted for 2% of the $41 billion global biotech market and in 2003 was ranked 3rd in the Asia-Pacific region and 11th in the world in number of biotechs.[45] In 2004-5, the Indian biotech industry saw its revenues grow 37% to $1.1 billion.[2,9] The Indian biotech market is dominated by biopharmaceuticals; 75% of 2004-5 revenues came from biopharmaceuticals, which saw 30% growth last year. Of the revenues from biopharmaceuticals, vaccines led the way, comprising 47% of sales[46]. Biologics and large-molecule drugs tend to be more expensive than small-molecule drugs, and India hopes to sweep the market in biogenerics and contract manufacturing as drugs go off patent and Indian companies upgrade their manufacturing capabilities.[edit]Biotechnology statistics
| Rank | Company | Revenue 2004(Rs crore) | Revenue 2004(USD millions) |
| 1 | 646 | 148.6 | |
| 2 | 565 | 129.9 | |
| 3 | 217 | 50.0 | |
| 4 | 188 | 43.2 | |
| 5 | 166 | 38.3 | |
| 6 | 135 | 31.0 | |
| 7 | 87 | 20.0 | |
| 8 | 84 | 19.4 | |
| 9 | 81 | 18.6 | |
| 10 | 78 | 17.9 | |
| 11 | 78 | 17.9 | |
| 12 | 72 | 16.6 | |
| 13 | 70 | 16.1 | |
| 14 | 69 | 15.9 | |
| 15 | 68 | 15.7 | |
| 16 | 67 | 15.4 | |
| 17 | 53 | 12.3 | |
| 18 | 41 | 9.4 | |
| 19 | 40 | 9.1 | |
| 20 | 36 | 8.3 | |
| USD 1 = Rs 43.5 Source: BioSpectrum Top 20: A threshold crossed |
Most companies in the biotech sector are extremely small, with only two firms breaking 100 million dollars in revenues. At last count there were 265 firms registered in India, over 75% of which were incorporated in the last five years.[2,47] The newness of the companies explains the industry's high consolidation in both physical and financial terms. Almost 50% of all biotechs are in or around Bangalore, and the top ten companies capture 47% of the market. The top five companies were homegrown; Indian firms account for 62% of the biopharma sector and 52% of the industry as a whole.[4,46] The Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE) is aiming to grow the industry to $5 billion in revenues generated by 1 million employees by 2009, and data from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seem to suggest that it is possible.[7,47]
[edit]Comparison with the U.S.
The Indian biotech sector parallels that of the U.S. in many ways. Both are filled with small start-ups while the majority of the market is controlled by a few powerful companies. Both are dependent upon government grants and venture capitalists for funding because neither will be commercially viable for years. Pharmaceutical companies in both countries have recognized the potential effect that biotechnology could have on their pipelines and have responded by either investing in existing start-ups or venturing into the field themselves.[36] In both India and the U.S., as well as in much of the globe, biotech is seen as a hot field with a lot of growth potential.[edit]Relationship with IT
Many analysts have observed that the hype around the biotech sector mirrors that of the IT sector. Biotech colleges have been popping up around the country eager to service the pools of students that want to take advantage of a growing industry.[7] The International Finance Commission, the private investment arm of the World Bank, called India the "centerpiece of IFC's global biotech strategy." Of the $110 million invested in 14 biotech projects investment globally, the IFC has given $43 million to 4 projects in India.[29] According to Dr. Manju Sharma, former director of the Department of Biotechnology, the biotech industry could become the "single largest sector for employment of skilled human resource in the years to come."[5] British Prime Minister Tony Blair was similarly impressed, citing the success of India's biotech industry as the reason for his own country's own biotech opportunities.[22] Malaysia is also looking to India as an example for growing its own biotech industry.[41][edit]Government support
The Indian government has been very supportive. It established the Department of Biotechnology in 1986 under the Ministry of Science and Technology.[47] Since then, there have been a number of dispensations offered by both the central government and various states to encourage the growth of the industry. India's science minister launched a program that provides tax incentives and grants for biotech start-ups and firms seeking to expand and establishes the Biotechnology Parks Society of India to support ten biotech parks by 2010. Previously limited to rodents, animal testing was expanded to include large animals as part of the minister's initiative.[10] States have started to vie with one another for biotech business, and they are offering such goodies as exemption from VAT and other fees, financial assistance with patents and subsidies on everything ranging from investment to land to utilities[19].[edit]Foreign investment
The government has also taken steps to encourage foreign investment in its biotech sector. An initiative passed earlier this year allowed 100% foreign direct investment without compulsory licensing from the government1.[6] In April, a delegation headed by the Kapil Sibal, the minister of science and technology and ocean development, visited five cities in the U.S. to encourage investment in India, with special emphasis on biotech.[32] Just two months later, Sibal returned to the U.S. to unveil India's biotech growth strategy at the BIO2005 conference in Philadelphia.[9][edit]Challenges
The biotech sector faces some major challenges in its quest for growth. Chief among them is a lack of funding, particularly for firms that are just starting out. The most likely sources of funds are government grants and venture capital, which is a relatively young industry in India. Government grants are difficult to secure, and due to the expensive and uncertain nature of biotech research, venture capitalists are reluctant to invest in firms that have not yet developed a commercially viable product.[26] As previously mentioned, India hopes to solve its funding problem by attracting overseas investors and partners. Before these potential saviors will invest significant sums in the industry, however, there needs to be better scientific and financial accountability. India is slowly working towards these goals, but it will be a while before they are up to the standards of Western investors.India's biotech firms share another problem with their pharmaceutical cousins: a lack of qualified employees. Biotech has the additional disadvantage of competing against IT for ambitious, science-minded students but not being able to guarantee the same compensation. An aspiring researcher in India needs 7–10 years of education covering a range of specialties in order to qualify to work in biotech. Even if a student does choose to go on the biotech path, the ineffectual curriculum at many universities makes it doubtful as to whether he will be qualified to work in the field once finished. One estimate shows that 10% of upper-echelon biotech recruits have come from foreign countries. While this is not a problem, per se, it drives up cost in a country whose competitive advantage is based on cheap, high-quality labor. Far from ending with scientists, there is also a shortage of people with a knowledge of biotechnology in related fields: doctors, lawyers, programmers, marketing personnel and others.[7,15,17]
While little has been done about the latter half of the employee crunch, the government has addressed the problem of educated but unqualified candidates in its Draft National Biotech Development Strategy. This plan included a proposal to create a National Task Force that would work with the biotech industry to revise the curriculum for undergraduate and graduate study in life sciences and biotechnology. The government's strategy also stated intentions to increase the number of PhD Fellowships awarded by the Department of Biotechnology to 200 per year. These human resources will be further leveraged with a "Bio-Edu-Grid" that will knit together the resources of the academic and scientific industrial communities, much as they are in the U.S.[5]
[edit]Major players
[edit]Glenmark
Glenmark is a emerging leader of Indian Pharmaceutical market in sales as well in Research. Soon new chemical entities will hit the market.[edit]Ranbaxy Laboratories
Ranbaxy is the leader in the Indian pharmaceutical market, taking in $1.174 billion in revenues for a net profit of $160 million in 2004. It was the first Indian pharmaceutical to have a proprietary drug (extended-release ciprofloxacin, marketed by Bayer) approved by the U.S. FDA, and the U.S. market accounts for 36% of its sales. 78% of Ranbaxy's sales are from overseas markets; its offices in 44 countries manage manufacturing in 7 countries and distribution in over 100.IMS Health estimated that Ranbaxy is among the top 100 pharmaceuticals in the world and that it is the 15th fastest growing company. By 2012, Ranbaxy hopes to be one of the top 5 generics producers in the world, and it consolidated its position with the purchase of French firm RGP Aventis in 2003. Ranbaxy also has higher aspirations, however, "to build a proprietary prescription business in the advanced markets." To this end, it keeps a dedicated research facility in Gurgaon staffed with over 1100 scientists. They currently have two molecules in Phase II trials and 3-5 in pre-clinical testing. It spent $75 million in R&D in 2004, a 43% increase over its 2003 expenditure.
Arun Puri is the chairman and CEO Brian Tempest is the only non-Indian on the senior management team.38,39
[edit]Dr. Reddy's Laboratories
Founded in 1984 with $160,000, Dr. Reddy's was the first Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical outside of Japan and the sixth Indian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It earned $446 million in fiscal year 2005, deriving 66% of this income from the foreign market. In order to strengthen its global position, Dr. Reddy acquired UK-based BMS Laboratories and subsidiary Meridian Healthcare. Anji Reddy is the chairman of Dr.Reddy's.Although 58% of Dr. Reddy's revenues come from generic drugs, the company was committed to WTO-compliance long before the 2005 bill took effect, and most of these products were already off patent. Dr. Reddy has long been a research-oriented firm, preceding many of its peers in setting up a New Drug Development Research (NDDR) in 1993 and out-licensing its first compound just four years later. Dr. Reddy's has since outlicensed two more molecules and currently has three others in clinical trials.
Although Dr. Reddy's is publicly traded, the Reddy family (including founder/chairman K. Anji Reddy, son-in-law/CEO GV Prasad and son/COO Satish Reddy) holds a hefty 26% share in the company.11,44
[edit]Nicholas Piramal
The company led by Asish Mishra grossing $350 million per year, Nicholas Piramal started its existence with the 1988 acquisition of Nicholas Laboratories and grew through a series of mergers, acquisitions and alliances. The company has formed a name for itself in the field of custom manufacturing. It cites its 1700-person global sales force as another core strength; with its acquisition of Rhodia's inhalation anaesthetics business, Nicholas Piramal gained a sales and marketing network spanning 90 countries34.Nicholas Piramal is well-poised for the challenge of surviving in the aftermath of product patent protection. The company has respected intellectual property rights since its inception and refused to "support generic companies seeking first-to-file or early-to-market strategies." Instead, it decided to make its own intellectual property and opened a research facility last November in Mumbai with hopes of launching its first drug in 2010 at a cost of $100,000.24,33
[edit]Cipla
Cipla is one of the oldest drug manufacturers in India. It is led by Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, Chairman and Managing Director. Cipla burst into the international consciousness in 2000 with Triomune, an AIDS treatment costing between $300 and $800 per year that infringed upon patents held by several companies who were selling the cocktail for $12,000 per year. Long before this news, Cipla had been building a strong global presence, and it now distributes its 800-odd products in over 140 countries. Privately held Cipla holds a prominent spot in its home country as well; it is the leader in domestic sales, having just unseated GlaxoSmithKline for the first time in 28 years. Revenue in 2004 totaled $552 million (using Rs 43.472 = $1) about 75% of which was derived in India. Cipla did not report having a research program.8,18|Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw]] is the Chairman and Managing Director of BiocoIrish chemicals company seeking to break into the Indian market, Biocon is now the leading biotech in India, bringing in Rs 646.36 crore (almost $150 million) in revenue for fiscal year 2004. It initially made its money by producing enzymes, but Biocon recently decided to become a research-oriented company with the goal of bringing a proprietary new drug to market.
The company went public in March 2004, and "its shares were oversubscribed by 33 times on opening day." Eight months later it launched Insugen, a bio-insulin that is its first branded product. Biocon also has two wholly owned subsidiaries, Syngene and Clinigene, that perform custom research and clinical trials.3,14,31
[edit]Serum Institute of India
Main article: Serum Institute of IndiaThe Serum Institute of India can make the enviable claim that 2 out of every 3 children in the world are immunized with one of their vaccines. It is the world's largest producer of measles and DTP vaccines, and its portfolio includes other vaccines, antisera, plasma products and anticancer compounds. The Serum Institute earned Rs 565 crore ($130 million) in revenue in fiscal year 2005, selling mainly to UN agencies and to the Indian government. The Serum Institute is part of the Poonawalla Group, whose holdings include a horse stud farm and manufacturers of industrial equipment and components. Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla is the Chairman of the company.[4]
[edit]Others
Other important domestic companiesGlenmark Generics Ltd. Mr. Glenn Saldana, MD
Lupin Ltd :Dr. Desh Bandhu Gupta, Chairman
Sun Pharmaceuticals :Dilip S. Sanghvi, Chairman and Managing Director
Torrent Pharmaceuticals :Sudir Mehta, Chairman
Wockhardt :Habil F. Khorakiwala, Chairman
Cadila Healthcare :Pankaj R. Patel, Chairman and Managing Director
Hetero Drugs :Dr. B. Partha Saradhi Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director
Nectar Lifesciences[5] :Mr. Sanjiv Goyal, Chairman
Macleods Pharma[6] :Dr. Rajendra Agarwal, Managing Director
Intas Biopharmaceuticals :Dr. Urmish Chudgar, Managing Director
Bharat Serums[7] :Mr. Bharat V. Daftary, Chairman and Managing Director
Orchid Pharmaceuticals :Mr. K. Raghavendra Rao, Chairman & Managing Director
Zenbiz Life science
Panacea Biotec[8] :Mr. Soshil Kumar Jain, Chairman
AMN Pharmaceuticals[9] :Amndip, Chairman and Managing Director
Ajanta Pharma[10] :Yogesh Agrawal, Managing Director
Green Apple Lifesciences Limited[11] :Mitesh Mehta, Chairman
Reliance Life Sciences Pvt Ltd[12] : Mr. K.V. V. Subramaniam, President and CEO
[edit]See also
[edit]References
1 Serum Institute of India. 15 June 2005. Biospectrum. 1 August 2005 <http://www.biospectrumindia.com/content/BSTOP20/10506153.asp>.2 "50% of country's biotech firms based in Karnataka." The Economic Times 23 April 2005.
3 Biopharmaceutical and Biotechnology Company. Biocon. 26 July 2005 <http://www.biocon.com/>.
4 "BioSpectrum 20: A Threshold Crossed." BioSpectrum 3:6 (June 2005): 24-32.
5 "Biotech development strategy to boost domestic, foreign investments: CII." The Hindustan Times 20 May 2005.
6 "Biotech sector to be single largest job churner: expert." Global Newswire – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire 21 February 2005.
7 "BT has jobs but where are the takers?" Asia Africa Intelligence Wire 7 January 2005.
8 Cipla. Cipla. 28 July 2005 < http://www.cipla.com/>.
9 Cookson, Clive. "India to expand biotech sector." The Financial Times (21 June 2005): 8.
10 Datta, P.T. Jyothi. "More global buys by pharma cos likely." The Hindu Business Line (Internet Edition), 22 July 2005.
11 Dr. Reddy Laboratories Ltd. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. 27 July 2005 <http://www.drreddys.com/>.
12 D'Silva, Jeetha. "Pharma SMEs gasp for breath as big companies move to better climes." The Economic Times 28 May 2005.
13 Dyer, Jeff and Khozem Merchant. "An experiment in globalization: how India hopes to reshape the world drugs industry." Financial Times 18 August 2004: 15.
14 Egan, Mary Ellen. "Big Shot in Bangalore. (Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw )." Forbes 174:8 (18 October 2004): 88.
15 Ghatak, Lopamudra. "Fat pay, yuppie lifestyle - join biotech, not IT." Asia Africa Intelligence Wire 15 March 2005.
16 "Government to allow 100% FDI in Biotech (Biotech will be exempted from the requirement of compulsory licensing) " India Business Insight - Global Newswire – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire 31 May 2005.
17 Hector, Darlington Jose. "NRIs, expats fuel biotech boom in India." The Economic Times 20 April 2005.
18 Hoovers Company Records – In-Depth Records: Cipla. 26 July 2005. Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. 28 July 2005.
19 "Incentives for bio-tech units." Asia Africa Intelligence Wire 2 July 2005.
20 "India industry: Desperate for quality healthcare services." Economist Intelligence Unit: Country ViewsWire. 24 June 2005.
21 Indiainfoonline.com. Indian Pharmaceutical Sector: Big Pharma Opportunity. By Atul Rastogi and Abhimanyu Verma. 28 August 2003.
22 "India's biotech strides prompts UK to hike funds in sector." Nationwide International News (The Press Trust of India) 7 March 2005.
23 "Intellectual property: protection and enforcement." WTO: Understanding the WTO. World Trade Organization. 1 August 2005 <http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/agrm7_e.htm>
24 Jarvis, Lisa. "NPIL sets ambitious growth targets." Chemical Market Reporter 267:16 (18 April 2005): 32-33.
25 Joshi, Hemant N. "Analysis of the Indian pharmaceutical industry: with emphasis on opportunities in 2005." Pharmaceutical Technology 27:1 (2003): 74-84.
26 Kathuria, Vinish & Vandita Tewari. "Venture capitalists and biotech sector: Discovering the potential." Asia Africa Intelligence Wire 29 December 2004.
27 Kripalani, Manjeet. "Pharma Karma; Tougher patent protection laws are spurring rapid growth in new drug research across India." Business Week 39:29 (18 April 2005): 20.
28 Krishnan, Unni. "India enters a new era." Manufacturing Chemist 76:2 (2005): 27-29.
29 Ludwina, Joseph. "IFC Committed to Support Indian Biotech Sector." International Finance Corporation: Press Releases South Asia. 20 June 2005.
30 Malhotra, Prabodh & Lofgren, Hans. "India's pharmaceutical industry: hype or high tech take-off?" Australian Health Review 28:2 (2004): 182-193.
31 Mazumdar, Sudip. "First Lady; In Asia: India's top biotech CEO begs to differ with those who say Singapore leads the field." Newsweek International 11 October 2004: 39.
32 Na, K. Oanh. "India's sales pitch to Silicon Valley." San Jose Mercury News 12 April 2005.
33 Nicholas Piramal India Limited. Nicholas Piramal India Limited. 26 July 2005. <http://www.nicholaspiramal.com>.
34 "NPIL buys Rhodia business for 7m [pounds sterling]." ACN: Asian Chemical News 11:475 (17 January 2005): 6.
35 Pharmaceutical and Drug Manufacturers Homepage. Pharmaceutical and Drug Manufacturers. 30 July 2005 <http://www.pharmaceutical-drug-manufacturers.com/>.
36 Prasad, Girish Chandra. "Outlook improves for India's biotechnology sector." The Economic Times 31 December 2004.
37 "R and D spend of top 5 Indian pharmaceutical companies touches Rs1,000 crore." Asia Africa Intelligence Wire 17 February 2005.
38 Ranbaxy – Indian Pharma Research & Pharmaceutical Company India. Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. 26 July 2005 <http://www.ranbaxy.com/>.
39 Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. Annual Report. Gurgaon, India: Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. (2004).
40 Serum Institute of India. Serum Institute of India. 29 July 2005 < http://www.seruminstitute.com>.
41 Singh, Karamjit. "Net value: Tapping biotech know-how." The Edge Malaysia 16 May 2005.
42 Singh, Seema. "India kicks the habit; local drugmakers have built a thriving industry on pilfering patents. The party ends in January." Newsweek International (22 November. 2004): 56.
43 Sridharan, R. et al. "Indian pharma's mid-life crisis." Business Today 27 February. 2005: 50.
44 Tanzer, Andrew. "Pill factory to the world." Forbes (internet) 10 December 2001. 29 July 2005.
45 Unnikrishnan, C H. "Patents carve up drug market." Business Standard 29 July 2005.
46 "Vaccines push BioPharma sales." BioSpectrum 3:6 (June 2005): 70-71.
47 Wilkie, Dana. "India wants to be your biotech source." The Scientist 25 October 2004: 51-53.
48 Zinnov, "Pharmaceutical Outsourcing in India" <http://www.zinnov.com/presentation/Pharmaceutical_Outsourcing_Overview.pdf>.
[edit]Reference
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Palash Biswas
Pl Read:
http://nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/
"According to analysts of the "knowledge economy," these rules need to be rewritten at the levels of firms and industries in terms of knowledge management and at the level of public policy as knowledge policy or knowledge-related policy."
ReplyDeleteI agree! If you need a good, fresh source for knowledge management, I suggest you could take a look at this page.