Time For India To Open Its Own IT Innovation Hubs

India has long lamented its ‘Brain Drain’ from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), in particular. The Indian taxpayer has subsidised top class technical higher education, right  from the days we could ill afford it, only to see the entire highly talented class of graduates make a bee-line for the US.  This is true of our doctors and nurses prominent all over the world in addition to the US and Europe as well.

There, at the fabled El Dorado, our IT people have had  challenging opportunities, excellent pay and perquisites, and a high standard of living. This has gone on for decades. In India the IT companies like Infosys and TCS among a host of others have also blossomed alongside and contributed handsomely to India’s software exports.

Now all this may have to change, at least for new aspirants for the H1B visa, because the Trump administration has put a $100,000 fee on it  The existing visa holders,( nearly 80 percent of all H1B visas are held by Indians), can continue and renew them without additional charges, beyond the nominal rates applied at present.

This $100,000, if it remains unchanged, puts a virtual ban on new applicants. It is an amount neither the individual nor his sponsoring company, either in India or the US, can afford. However, if the intent is to force the hiring of American citizens instead, the IT companies may have a difficult time of it, because there are not many with the requisite skill sets.

Some American and European companies have already opened and operate design hubs, data mining, back-office and other types of centres in India. But before this new hundred-fold increase in visa charges, most American companies ran their Centres of Innovation in America, but largely using top grade Indian talent.

Because of this dominant global structure imposed by the biggest buyers of the resultant software, Indians ended up doing much of the basic IT work via what has been derisively called technical coolie work. Indian companies have thus far avoided competing with Innovation Centres of their own. These could have come up quite easily in India, and will, no doubt do so now. They can also sprout in nearby offshore locations, with liberal tax laws and excellent infrastructure, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

India  now has a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UAE since 2022, which can greatly assist swift cooperation and collaboration for such Innovation Centres.

Artificial Intelligence development that is changing the entire IT landscape, as the next step up from semiconductors/chip manufacturing and use, with its revolutionary abilities and cost saving applications need vast amounts of electricity.  So does the semiconductors and chip development industry getting started in a big way in India, in addition to large amounts of water, and of course, rare earth mineral products such as ‘magnets’. But AI, while essentially using semiconductors/chips can constantly improve their capability and quality.

Rare Earth mineral development and its products are also being fast-tracked in India from mining onwards. But right now it relies on imports from current monopolist China. Neither the semiconductor/chips nor AI can function without rare earth products.

India is now more than willing to take the comprehensive plunge and just as it has obtained collaborators from Taiwan and South Korea for chips and semiconductor manufacture, supported by huge government incentives under generous PLI schemes, there is no reason why the same cant be done for the development of Technical Innovation in IT.

India can also offer long-term visas to Europeans, Americans, Taiwanese, Japanese, Koreans and technical Chinese to set up  on their own. We couls also collaborate with the Chinese in China and learn rare earth technology, chip magnet manufacturing and probably cyber protection. They want Indian technical talent and are offering visas. India’s major advantage is this large pool of technical personnel that could be employed in the Indian Innovation Centres and elsewhere. Germany and China may have been quick off the mark, but there will be many others such as Canada and Britain wanting to employ Indians for their technical expertise and ease with the English language.

With ongoing economic reforms, a robust economy, and the growth of India as a manufacturing and investment destination, the possibilities are indeed great.

Internally, lowering of GST rates, income tax rates, hike in government pensions and salaries, are collectively setting off a consumer boom to counter the US tariff wars. We can see a flash growth already in automobile sales right at the beginning of the festive season. Rate cuts in  repo interest by thew RBI based on low inflation and a reduced trade deficit is stimulating private sector investment. This includes the MSME sector that employs large numbers. There is greater consumer spending as intended. News reports indicate there is a likelihood of allowing greater foreign investment in Indian banks in the near future.

In short, things are accelerating in the Indian economy. Present threats to labour intensive employment because of high US tariffs will probably resolve soon.

 FTAs with the EU and indeed the US may both be in place by the end of this calendar year 2025.  From 50% tariffs imposed by the US we may be down to about 10 to 15% with an interim trade agreement in hand as well.

The Innovation Centres that India may soon set up will contribute to the immense demands of the domestic market let alone export. That will interest foreign investors because few such opportunities exist now.  AI could contribute substantially to spends even as it improves efficiency and profits. India’s stress  on aatmanirbhar Make in India is the leit motif.

This is being seized upon by a large number of foreign companies who regard it as their way into the vast Indian market. In addition, there is the consumption of the huge domestic defence industry. Companies off the starting block with MROs, collaborations, technology transfers include Dassault and Airbus from Europe, Embraer from Brazil, GE  from the US , Rolls Royce from the UK, Russian defence companies. An FTA with the UK and another with four countries in Europe including Switzerland already exist.  There is a lot of collaboration in missile and drone technology with Israel in addition to substantial imports as well.

Submarine technology is coming into the collaborations with France and Germany. Other aircraft companies such as Boeing, Airbus, Rafale (Dassault), and Lockheed Martin are  also sourcing parts and components from India and its private sector independently.

AI can greatly help the semiconductors and chip industry, the electronic space, the automotive industry including electrical cars, alternative energy,  fuel refining and distribution, lubricants, nuclear energy. , infrastructure, including roads, tunnels, airports, dredging, dams, canals, railways and civil aviation, UAVs, drones, chemicals, fertilizers, ISRO and space, machines used in manufacture themselves. Then there is food production, afforestation, conservation, animal welfare,  indeed value addition of various sorts to almost every endeavour. The sky is the limit in India and IT innovation Centres can contribute massively to it all. If we get it right, we can do it all for ourselves and export our cutting edge know-how too.

Commercial  Ship-building is attracting big investments from South Korea, Japan and others. Modern ports are developing at a fast pace including container handling deep water ports. Off shore drilling for large oil reserves off the Andaman Islands offer great prospects. The electronics sector is not only attracting major American companies like Intel and Apple but also Samsung of Korea. And  all are committed to Make in India.

The question is not really about the potential. It is about how quickly India can move to seize the day.

(1,271 words)

September 24^th, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

The Topsy Turvy World of Coercive Trump Tariffs & Penalties And What India Can Do About It

The US-India relationship, called a geostrategic imperative for decades now, particularly in conjunction with the rise of China as a challenger to US hegemony, seems to have soured very suddenly.

What India now does about the situation will define not only the bilateral relationship going forward, the multilateral one in QUAD, and India’s standing in the world. This, as it goes towards becoming the world’s third largest economy before 2030.

The answer lies in a combination of retaliatory tariff hikes and even brand-new impositions on American companies operating in India, for example in the digital space, and diplomatic accommodation of American demands on trade wherever possible.

Caving in abjectly to US dictation has been swiftly ruled out. Perhaps the policymakers in Washington have not properly assessed the determination and backbone of the Modi administration.   In response to the near abusive tone adopted by Trump, unable to bully India into buckling under, India has said it will act only in its national interest.

But having said that, to take the relationship forward without a rupture, very skilful give and take will nevertheless have to take place. Even an adversary like China realises this in the midst of this tariff war with the US.

The Indian stock market is not unduly perturbed because tariff impositions like this cannot make too much of an impact in a country driven by its domestic economy. This is the key difference between India and many other highly export dependent countries.

 Still, the US currently accounts for half of all Indian exports, and till lately, the bilateral trade was expected to treble to $500 billion by 2030. Unless repaired, the present figure of $ 150 billion, with the balance of trade in India’s favour, could largely evaporate.

Instead of it being thought of as the ‘plus one’ to China as the US seeks to create new supply chains, other countries in South and South East Asia could assume this mantle, albeit collectively. This would be bad for India as a historic opportunity missed.

At the same time, India’s stellar growth rate of about 6.5% in GDP year-on-year, the highest amongst all major economies, could be impacted by up to 0.5% by US tariffs at 25% on Indian exports.

This is not counting as yet excluded sectors such as service exports, meaning software in the main. Pharmaceuticals are also not included but tariffs on them have been threatened. US pharmaceutical companies, which have Indian counterparts have been brought under the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) scanner. These include Aurobindo Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, and Sun Pharma. Various inspections are being conducted. But generic drug exporters, could face tariffs next.

Then there are as yet unspecified penalties for India’s membership of BRICS perceived as an anti-US organisation hostile to using the US dollar as a global currency for most trade. Does India need to really stay in BRICS which leans towards China, or could it move away to a leadership of the Global South instead?

India wants to promote its UPI but not get rid of the US dollar in favour of the Chinese currency. It has made this clear on more than one occasion.

America is also annoyed along with the NATO countries in Europe at India’s neutrality on Ukraine and buying petroleum from war sanctioned Russia.

The Trump administration also does not want India to buy armaments from Russia either despite the great success of the S-400 and Brahmos missiles in the recent Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.

We will know the extent of the blow only when the penalties are specified, but it could be well over 100%.

For now, India has been subjected to one of the higher tariffs amongst its export competitors, Vietnam and Bangladesh for example. These begin, in the absence of its agreement to allow American dairy, GM seeds and agricultural products at nil tariff into the country. The sectors gravely affected are textiles and ready-made garments, plus gems and jewellery, which are all labour intensive.

India could consider redirecting these exports via the UK with whom an FTA has just been concluded at nil duty. The UAE, with which country India also has an FTA, presents another route.

We do not have tariffs like Vietnam for conducting third party exports either. India, like others, and China before it, could look for circumventions too.

Even after five rounds of face-to-face negotiations and a sixth meeting scheduled around the 20-21^st of August 2025 in Delhi, dairy and agricultural products are sticking points. Will India be able to concede ground on some items within this sphere, particularly in the processed foods area, to allow the Trump administration to call it a win?

Of course, the dairy and agriculture sectors are politically sensitive in India with rural India, its farmers and others, constituting a very powerful voting block and lobby, ever ready to march on Delhi in an instant. Still, certain items in the detail which don’t pose a threat to Indian agriculturists could be allowed in.

An interim trade deal could then result, and the punitive 25% tariffs would be overtaken. A full agreement could come after at least a year when all issues have been scrutinised and negotiated. America wants access to the Indian market and India would be churlish to miss the chance to achieve a good FTA with America. This more so with China as our main economic and military competitor next door.

India could also further diversify its imports of oil and gas, looking father afield to reduce its purchase of Russian product. This, provided lucrative deals better than those on offer from Russia could be struck. Hopefully, the Trump administration will not take an absolutist position and live and let live.

As for armaments, can America supply what India needs quickly enough and at a reasonable price? The US track record on the supply of GE 404 and 414 engines for India’s hugely delayed Tejas 1A and 2A fighter programmes has been most discouraging. Likewise, the Apache AH-64E combat helicopters on order are vastly delayed for some years, the deal was signed in 2020. With only three out of the six just delivered, and the other three promised by the end of 2025.

America is also very expensive, slow on export permissions on its high technology armaments, and reluctant to collaborate and transfer technology. It would have to change all this, and be consistent going forward without using any of it for leverage against India.

 While Russia is immersed in the war in Ukraine, it has continuously tried to support the Indian armed forces, and has offered best terms on its advanced equipment with technology transfer. France, Germany, the UK and Israel have also become defence partners with India and provide alternatives to both Russia and America.

The commercial Boeing aircraft on order by the private sector are also much delayed, even as various Boeing aircraft in India and abroad are showing a lot of technical problems, that even resulted in a major crash of a 787-8 Dreamliner at Ahmedabad recently.

Is the American aviation industry slipping? The $100 million F35 is showing problems with one stranded for over a month in India before it was repaired and another crashed in America. Everything military equipment wise, if it comes from the US, is most tardy. Yes, there is definitely room for give and take and revisions of stance between the two great democracies.

(1,234 words)

August 1^st, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

 

 

India Must Recycle, Mine, Refine, Import, Critical Rare Earth Mineral Products To Get Away From Chinese Market Dominance

A worry on what to do with EV Lithium batteries once their life is over, in about eight years, based on current technology, is being addressed. Instead of heaping them up without use, the batteries can be recycled to extract critical rare earth minerals. This process is faster, and is at least 25% cheaper than setting up greenfield mines and refining facilities, and, deals with some part of the waste material at the same time.

India could even import expired EV batteries to recycle their rare earth minerals and magnets. It already runs some of the largest ship scrappage facilities in the world and attracts many large ships at the end of their useful life from all over the world.

China’s trade war with America is based on restricted sale and export of critical minerals/ metals/magnets. But it also restricts such sales in general, so that the requirements cannot be sourced from third countries not on the embargoed list. This has prompted most of the world to seek alternatives.

India and its fast-developing aatmanirbharta manufacturing programme is hard hit as stockpiles of the rare earth magnets run out.  

Besides recycling, several countries including major consumers in the US and Europe, plan to increase the mining of their own resources and set up refining plants for end products.

So far, most countries who have been hit with Chinese embargoes, were content to source them from China for its cost advantages, and the fact that mining and refining rare earth minerals is a highly polluting business. Despite being a near monopoly on the part of China, the price of rare earth minerals, metals and magnets have been falling according to Australia. This may be another engineered tactic on the part of the Chinese to keep competition out.

However, even as countries resolve to reduce this dependence on China, alternative facilities cannot sprout overnight. The sudden shortage is crippling the Electrical Vehicle (EV) production market. In addition, the renewable energy resources area, in which India has been making rapid strides is also hampered. Likewise, the crucial defence manufacturing ventures that use sophisticated electronics as well. For the moment the leverage advantage is definitely with China.

India is not only planning to mine its own reserves of rare earth minerals but has been active in setting up trade agreements with other countries in Africa and South America that have these resources. America has large reserves in- country as well, and could well become a new developed source.  

So while China, because of its dominance and economies of scale in the field can hamper and disrupt various activities for now, it is probably not for too protracted a period.  Other supply chains are under development, with cooperation between nations without involving China. Explorations are ongoing in new countries like Oman, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Thereafter, as this effort is up and running over the next few years, China may find itself in trouble trying to export these very monopolistic resources that it has spent so much time and money developing.

Meanwhile India is already taking some concrete steps. It proposes to incentivise domestic production of rare earth minerals and magnets by Indian companies with an amount of Rs. 1,345 crores. The key target sectors are electric vehicles, electronics and defence. One item for example, neodymium magnets, are crucial in EVs, wind energy systems, mobile phones, defence equipment.

The early Indian initiative is designed to support the production of 1,500 tonnes of rare earth magnets. India currently produces only 1% of global output in critical rare earth minerals even though it has 6% of the global reserves. India is also exploring a partnership with Australia which has at least 5% and is selling it to Japan, that has managed to reduce its dependence on China to 60%. However, Australia is highly dependent on China for its trade and investments and cannot go against Chinese wishes.

Therefore, India is also looking elsewhere for supplies. Presently, China controls 69% of the rare earth minerals, metals and magnets production and market. America contributes 12%, Myanmar holds 11% and Australia accounts for 5%. Myanmar has a strong alliance with China, that takes the joint tally to about 80%. The manufacturing process combines light rare earth elements such as neodymium and praseodymium with traces of heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium. Procuring all these elements is not easy. India currently produces the light rare earth items some 2,900 tonnes worth, and none of the heavy earth minerals. Most of the product is found in coastal beach sands with low mineral content. Samarium-cobalt magnets are being developed in a pilot plant for the defence industry. Explorations are going on in different coastal and sand rich interior states like Rajasthan.

Its Lithium that has been discovered in J&K, but that is another part of the EV jigsaw.

Efforts are also ongoing to develop Sodium-Ion batteries in countries like Japan, ever more efficient internal combustion engines with almost nil pollution in various developed economies. This will prolong and preserve their automotive fuel based industries. Then, there is propulsion using hydrogen. India has made both buses and trains at the trial stage that can run on hydrogen and have nil pollutants. It also has hydrogen producing factories. Other technological applications such as nuclear energy are also being explored to take a leaf out of nuclear-powered submarines, aircraft carriers, and some specialised ships.

For the moment however, there is very little option but to persuade China to sell us rare earth minerals and magnets to keep various industries going. This will take negotiation and give and take. America, for example, that had put restrictions on high-end electronic chips from being sold to China, has been forced to lift them in exchange for the rare earth products.

(964 words)

July 23^rd, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

When Will The UK Government Funded BBC Have Its Anti India Switch Fixed

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) put out a hurried report apparently implying Indian pilot error for the Air India plane crash a month ago. It was typically based on a selective interpretation of the preliminary findings from the Indian investigative authorities.

The report did not emphasise the tendency of the fuel switches to malfunction and disengage despite the provision of locking mechanisms.

In a glaring expression of bias, probably intended to shield aircraft maker Boeing and jet engine maker General Electric, the BBC glossed over the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bulletin from 2018 pointing out problems with the fuel switches in Boeing 737 jet aircraft. The same switches are also installed in the 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed.

The BBC instead pointed out that the FAA bulletin from 2018 just highlighted the problem that could, and in this instance did have fatal consequences, did not mandatorily insist on the fuel switches being fixed or replaced. Instead, the FAA stressed inspection. Was it laxness then on the part of the American FAA compounded by Boeing? Are even the faulty switches being sought to be foisted on Air India’s inspection negligence?

The tendency of the BBC to put out slanted reports on matters Indian is not new. It has done so time and again making up quite a long list, this being only the latest example. As a British entity financed by the licence fee paid by ordinary TV watching Britons, but not averse to accepting donations from all sorts of entities including the Chinese and countries that are against Israel.

Its irresponsible actions against India, probably a consequence of large number of anti-India Communists in their ranks,  that seem to dislike the Congress administration as much as the Modi one, pro-Pakistan origin employees, and a colonial hangover. However, all this lying and half-truth, not only harms its own reputation, but potentially also Indo-British relations.

These relations are now being taken up a notch by the implementation of a hard negotiated Free Trade Agreement (FTA). There is also an ongoing negotiation and competition between Rolls Royce of Britain and Safran of France to collaborate with India to manufacture a brand new AMCA sixth generation stealth fighter engine. Other military engine collaborations for the Indian Navy are also in the works even as the British economy is not doing very well.

A preliminary report on this first Air India crash in decades, released by the Indian Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on July 13^th  one month after the end of Air India AI 171 at Ahmedabad, stated that the fuel switches were apparently switched off for both engines.

They were switched off, one after the other, just1-3 seconds after take-off, and then switched on again, probably by the pilots, or because they were free floating, unable to lock into OFF or RUN positions. One engine came back to life providing some thrust after some 10-14 seconds, but the aircraft could not gain height even after that.

The cockpit voice recorder had one pilot asking the other why he had switched off the fuel and the other pilot saying he had not. The plane could not climb beyond 670 metres and the pilot cried May Day before crashing into a trainee doctor’s hostel building just 39 seconds after take-off. It burst into flames after three explosions caused by its momentum, the impact, and full tanks of aviation fuel.

Notably, the AAIB preliminary report mentioned that a 2018 US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bulletin concerned the fuel control switch locking mechanisms on Boeing 737 jets. When disengaged, the switches could move more easily through vibration, contact or other factors. The FAA did not mandate fixes in the bulletin, only recommending inspections to ensure proper locking engagement. This suggests that perhaps both the fuel switches malfunctioned and were not properly locked into place in the ill-fated aircraft before take-off. This is the latest position even as the AAIB has not suggested any further action on the part of Boeing or GE at this time.

But the speculation on what happened began a month ago. Soon after the 787-8 Dreamliner, Flight AI 171 on 12^th June crashed. It killed 241 people on board and 19 on the ground, with 67 more injured.

Western ‘aviation experts’ were quick to cast speculative aspersions of pilot error on the two Indian pilots. Their clear objective, probably funded by Boeing and General Electric (GE) themselves, was to drive the narrative away from the aircraft company and its GE engines that failed. This is because any culpability established by the investigations from the successfully recovered black box, the cockpit flight recorder and the relevant wreckage would likely result in expensive law suits against Boeing and GE. These, if they went against them, would involve billions of dollars in payouts. Objectivity and balance was clearly missing in the early reactions, including those in media reports, social media posts. podcasts and so on.

 Only one Western expert notably suggested the possibility of software malfunctions in the aircraft.

Indian commentators advanced many other theories steering clear of blaming the highly experienced but dead pilots. They spoke of software malfunctions too, possible sabotage, maintenance issues, inherent flaws and shortcoming of the aircraft. They cited erstwhile Boeing executives criticising the manufacture process and short cuts taken by Boeing for the Dreamliner. At the same time, this particular aircraft had been in operation for 11 years prior and there are some 1,175 Dreamliners operating in various airlines all over the world since it began to fly in 2011.  

Early speculations included possible bird hits on both engines though later there was no evidence of this found.

Only one passenger in seat 11A escaped miraculously, almost unscathed, and he said he heard a loud bang followed by the aircraft losing height

(963 words)

July 13^th 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Is America A Good Fit To Host The Next FIFA World Cup And The Olympics

In the midst of a polarised and disrupted America under Trump 2.0 when it is unclear if the president’s many initiatives are going to bear good fruit, the next FIFA World Cup soccer tournament is scheduled for June 2026 onwards till July 19^th.. The FIFA Would Cup in 2026, its 23^rd edition, will feature 48 teams for the first time expanded from the previous 32, and be held in 16 different places. In Mexico with 2 locations, Canada with 3, both auxiliary hosts, and all over the United States in 11 locations. This is the first time that the FIFA World Cup will be hosted by three nations. The last time it was hosted by more than one country was in 1992.

The final will be played in the New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. In fact, all the matches from the quarter finals onwards, will be played in the US. There are some who say that if the current turbulence with immigrants, political differences between the centre and some states, and visas persist, then some more of the 60 odd matches to be played in the US, out of the 104 fixtures, could be shifted to Mexico and Canada.

Soccer has grown in popularity enormously over the last decade in America and the FIFA World Cup is expected to be both a money spinner and fill stadiums in all the venues selected. But will fans from over 40 countries on the American banned list, mainly Islamic countries, be able to attend? The Trump administration said yes to FIFA  at selection time, but some doubts persist on visa issues.

Then the Los Angeles Olympics will come in the summer of 2028. The 34^th Olympiad will take place in recent illegal immigration related riot, arson and looting hot-spot Los Angeles, between July 14^th and July 30^th 2028. The Paralympic 2028 will be held thereafter between August 15^th to August 27^th 2028, also in Los Angeles.

America is of course the biggest economy and dominant military power in the world. It has hosted four winter and four summer Olympics already over the years. This, no doubt gives it considerable experience on the smooth handling of such top-level sporting events without any mishaps. The US enjoys considerable global goodwill and confidence, and has all the wherewithal to meet Olympic standards, facilities and fool-proof security for the sports competing teams and individuals, and has the infrastructure to host the enormous numbers who will come as visitors to Los Angeles.

The concern with law and order however, is a legitimate factor deserving of caution. The battle with millions of illegal immigrants and visa overstayers currently rages on under the Trump 2.0 administration. The federal government sees many of them as undesirables, criminals, gang members, drug dealers, particularly of the dangerous China supplied drug Fentanyl, that is claiming many young addicts and resulting in quite a few deaths.

But apart from the immigrants, there are also a number of disgruntled American citizens, unhappy with the conduct of the Israel- Gaza-Iran-Lebanon-Syria War, The other one in Ukraine versus Russia, and also radicalised visitors, prone to gun violence and mounting terrorist attacks.

However, this situation also prevails in Western Europe and other advanced countries, and has to be routinely tackled there too. The reality is that almost no country today is totally devoid of dissidents, fifth columnists, alien spies, resident moles, subversives, and security threats. It is just more acute in democracies with constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

Many of the illegal immigrants in America, numbering in their millions, quite a few from South America, Islamic countries troubled by war and extremism, even India, are now being expelled. They were, in many cases, sought to be regularised in the previous Biden administration. The Democrats see them as a labour resource and a growing vote bank not unlike those state governments in India that encourage illegal immigration from Bangladesh, Myanmar and even Pakistan. President Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans base sees them as usurpers of their scarce jobs and worse.

There is a sharp difference of opinion and perspective between the liberal-left Democrats and those who support Donald Trump, on the matter. The judiciary weighs in, sometimes on the side of the immigrants citing lack of due process before their attempted expulsion, and sometimes on the side of the Trump administration.

Meanwhile the Trump administration has ramped up its efforts to secure the borders and has warned both Mexico and Canada to do likewise, both for drugs and illegals, or face punitive sanctions and tariffs for this reason, in addition to economic balance of trade considerations.

This background atmosphere is unlikely to be completely brought to heel by the summer of 2026, and perhaps not even by 2028, a presidential election year for America. Both sporting events are therefore likely to be held under the watchful eye of a strong security presence and keen intelligence operatives.

So, is the United States presently safe enough to host these major tournaments? The answer is, on balance, yes. Not only does the central government not hesitate to use fully armed federal troopers and marines to supplement the various state police departments, but an attitude of zero tolerance against rioting, arson, looting, and terrorist violence is evident in the handling of this threat.

Besides many thousands, if not quite millions of the immigrants will have been deported within the year or so left before the FIFA World Cup, and more still by the time of the summer Olympics of 2028.

Uncertainty persists, but many in the MAGA base see the vetting of who can come to the United States as well as who must leave as a form of  ‘draining of the swamp’ that stretches beyond Washington DC, to the heart of the nation.

America’s pugnacious political attitudes towards trade wars with China and many other countries, the funding of NATO, the various multilateral banking institutions, the United Nations, have also created fissures with persistent security implications. Countries under the American lash such as Iran do not easily forget and forgive.

Is America in 2025 still the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’? The jury is out on this one, even as the Trump administration strives to make it a safer country through its crack-down on aliens, enemies, and dissidents alike.

(1,050 words)

June 24^th, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

India Overtakes Japan In GDP To Become 4^th Largest Major Economy In The World

India’s steady growth of over 6% in GDP per annum year-on-year over most of the past decade, is powering it into the top of the table as it overtakes advanced economies with low growth or even shrinkage. Since 2014, when the Modi first administration was formed, till now, in its third consecutive run, India has climbed from No.10 to No.4, and counting. Before this NDA term ends in 2029, India is expected to secure the No.3 slot.

And the best thing about it is that India, that is Bharat, will keep growing at over 6% if it maintains itself aloof from major geopolitical disruptions, pandemics, trade conflicts, pressures of cartels, sanctions, artificial scarcities, the ravages of addictive and illegal drugs, and is blessed by ample food security.

This is based primarily on the consumption demands of its formidable domestic economy.  With 1.4 billion plus people, of which nearly 65% are under 35 years of age presently, there is a massive and useful demographic dividend compared to ageing China with the effects of its one child policy, though now reversed.  The Indian age advantage is likely to last for another 15 years at least.

India is vulnerable as a major petroleum importer for over 80% of its needs from diversified sources. But it is taking strong steps to increase its green energy component, from nuclear power including its own manufacture of small reactors, solar, hydroelectric, wind, lithium-based battery electric, hydrogen, ethanol blending, and so on.

Japan is the latest to be surpassed with India’s economy at $ 4.19 trillion according to IMF data quoted by India’s own Niti Aayog. Germany is the next economy to overtake, to place India in the number 3 slot. This will happen when it reaches near the $ 5 trillion mark, expected in the next 2 to 3 years.

And at the No. 3 slot, India is expected to stay for the coming decades, but gathering more and more heft all the while as the time passes. This has major implications for the development of India’s infrastructure, modernisation and defence manufacturing and the resultant import substitution/exports. It could even accelerate the pace of growth to over 7% or more.

Defence preparedness is of the utmost importance with two hostile neighbours working in tandem. This is ironic in some ways, because India does a massive amount of trading with China in multiple areas where its manufacturing value chain has not yet sufficiently developed.

Pakistan fights India for religious and ideological reasons, but China, whilst appreciating the trade, wants to halt India’s fast-track progress. It also covets its land. In addition, the Western powers and America are also unhappy that India is slipping out of their biddability, if not control.

Japan, even though it is a G 7 power, is Asian, and less threatened by India’s growth.  It is more willing to share technology and cooperate with India as in the bullet train technology being developed.

However, on its own, the Indian economy is not particularly indebted, and highly resilient against domestic and global shocks, with its customary tight management. This is regularly praised by the multilateral lending agencies and the global rating agencies.

Startlingly, long term projections see India clocking up $52.5 trillion by 2075!

It already has the 3^rd largest number of billionaires at 205, only behind China’s 450, and America’s 902. In 2075, not only will the Indian population have been declining for a quarter century, its economy will be placed only marginally below China.

China is projected to become the number one economy by then, at $57 trillion in GDP. However, there is some credible doubt on whether China will stay intact, given its present economic and political woes. It is expected to break into five countries in the 2030s itself according to some think tanks, plagued by internal instability rather than outside intervention. And this, soon after its protégé and protectorate Pakistan, already bankrupt, implodes. The Islamic republic is unlikely to survive as a country in its present form beyond the end of this very decade.

Meanwhile a radicalised Bangladesh, also nearly bankrupt, in collaboration with Pakistan and China, will meet stiff resistance from India if it undertakes any misadventures. The situation in Myanmar is also volatile and worthy of careful observation to prevent it from boiling over into India’s North East. The Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea are also being monitored by India, its satellites, navy, and air force for potential threats.

Relationships with Sri Lanka, Maldives and Mauritius are being strengthened and the facilities in India’s own Andaman and Nicobar Islands are being rapidly developed.

India is perforce self-reliant in matters of strategic defence, with steady support only from Russia and Israel amongst the leading military powers. All the others have axes to grind as India rises. However, it does enjoy a lot of diplomatic support from a large number of countries. India is working on building trade corridors through multiple nations in West Asia all the way to Europe, as well as via Iran and Central Asia to Russia. Many of these Indian initiatives rival China’s belt and road programmes and efforts to gird the world in a new silk route.  

While the ASEAN region has cordial relations with India, it is closer in some ways to China. The Philippines however has drawn closer to India to combat Chinese hegemony.

America is expected to be just behind India at some $ 51.5 trillion in 2075. All other countries are projected to be far behind these big three.

India’s per capita income, presently at $ 2,200 odd, is a major bugbear, because of India’s rising population till 2050. It has certainly doubled in the last 10 years, and it grew by 9.2% in 2023. But per capita can only be high in countries with small populations.

In the interim, more and more of the Global South, the African Union, South America, as well as the developed powers are lining up to do business with India. The recent FTA with Britain about to be operationalised is a case in point. An interim trade agreement with the United States is also imminent. The EU is working on an FTA too.

India is beginning to be recognised for doing things differently, both in war and peace, as well as in its use of innovation and technology. Its purchasing power parity, already places it as the No. 3 economy for long now. Its pride of place in the G21, gives it a distinct advantage over expensive, inflationary, and low growth countries of the G7 going forward.

(1,096 words)

May 26^th, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

India May Be First Globally To Sign A Bilateral Trade Agreement With The US Soon After Vance Visit

The visit of the new Vice President of America to India is a timely cameo in a very important context. JD Vance, currently in India for four days in a semi-official cum private visit to New Delhi and Jaipur/Agra, along with second lady Usha Vance and their three children, is not the usual near-invisible US Vice President.

In the first hundred days of the Trump administration 2.0, Vance has been called a ‘wingman’ by the media and has featured in most of the president’s flurry of initiatives. President Donald Trump has already been asked if he sees the young and robust Vance as a successor. He demurred, probably because it is so early in the day, but called him ‘very capable’.

Vance and his family were met at the New Delhi airport by Union Railway and Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. He also received a ceremonial guard of honour on arrival.

Vance is being treated with all seriousness, not just as a high dignitary, but a political heavyweight in current geopolitics. His recent visits to Western Europe and Greenland left their mark in terms of advancing Trump’s vision for America. His pronouncements and actions there had their salutary impacts.

India has clearly shown its keenness to progress an enhanced trade and strategic relationship with America during Vance’s visit on Monday to meet Prime Minister Modi. This, even as the prime minister jetted off to Saudi Arabia on another strategic bilateral visit on Tuesday.

It is a crucial and unprecedented time in global geopolitics, with America recasting the earlier World Trade Organisation (WTO) based trade rules and all existing trade agreements with itself and between other nations into a bilateral format. WTO rules were, lately, being ignored with impunity anyway, mainly by China. The UN too is in a sorry state with many of its agencies infiltrated by China and other pressure groups.

And now, in order to reverse China’s trade dominance built over more than 30 years, albeit with America aiding and abetting it all the way, the US, long an advocate for free trade, has decided to use tariffs. This, to right the balance in its favour amongst massive trade deficits against it.

When President Nixon’s America engineered the rise of the bilateral relationship with China, it was partially to undermine the USSR. But, now, as they say, times have changed. China became factory to the world with $500 billion of trade with the US alone, and at least $ 150 billion with Germany and France each amongst others in the EU.

Today, in the midst of the tariff wars unleashed by the Trump administration, China is threatening all and sundry that it will punish all those countries who cave in to unilateral US tariff lowering demands.

There are very high US tariffs on China, some as high as 245%, but the US has paused punishing reciprocal tariffs on some 27 countries for 90 days, soon after April 2^nd when they were announced. This, to give these countries a chance to recast their trade rules. These were the ones that did not announce retaliatory reciprocal tariffs against the US, and indeed some announced lowering of tariffs at the first salvo. Cambodia, for example lowered its tariffs against US goods from 45% to 5% at one fell swoop.

 While the EU has announced retaliatory tariffs against the US, India’s QUAD partner Japan is also fast forwarding its trade negotiations with the US, with a trade delegation just returned after several days of negotiations in America. However, Japan earns 20% of its profit from its business with America, and 15% from dealings with China, which presents a conundrum, and calls for a careful balancing act.

India has no such problems, because like America, it runs massive and ever- growing dollar trade surpluses in favour of China. Both President Trump and Prime Minister Modi are keen to take the Indo-US strategic and military partnership to new heights, incorporating and boosting bilateral trade to some $ 500 billion annually.  This, as America plans to isolate and reduce China’s global trade drastically.

On Monday21st April, Vance held talks with Prime Minister Modi both one-on-one and at delegation level at the prime minister’s residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.

The forthcoming trade agreement was discussed as well as cooperation in defence, strategic technologies, energy including nuclear energy, the forthcoming QUAD Summit that India will host this year, and other areas including the contentious tariffs on highly sheltered agricultural produce.

The negotiations have been proceeding amicably and rapidly, with India amenable to lowering its tariffs in multiple instances. The prime minister hosted the Vance family to dinner thereafter.

The Modi administration, that hosted the last G20 or the G21 by its end, before Brazil took over. India not only engineered the unanimous inclusion of the multiple country African Union, but also navigated the previous Biden term adroitly. This despite bold attempts by the American deep state spearheaded by the Biden decorated George Soros, Khalistani and Islamic terrorists, and other far-left anti-India irritants.

Nevertheless, the Indo-US strategic relationship, steadily built over several successive US administrations with even-handed bipartisan support, through the Manmohan Singh and Modi led years, has stayed on track.

However, the return of President Donald Trump for a second term after a gap of four years is a stellar opportunity to take the Indo-US relationship to a whole new level.  

Prime Minister Modi was among the first heads of government invited on a state visit to the US in February, very soon after Trump was sworn in on 20^th January 2025. Observers noted that the Indian prime minister was received by the Trumps even before America’s long standing European allies.

During the swearing in ceremony, held indoors because of the exceptionally bitter January cold, India’s External Affairs Minister was seated very close to the podium as a special mark of favour in the packed hall at the Capitol. None of this was by coincidence. India has a strategic design with regard to America, while the US realises that India is very important in its plan to recast the world to better suit itself. The personal chemistry between Modi and Trump, already established in Modi 1.0, is also playing a part.

The still vigorous 78 year-old Trump, in the first year of his second term, is famously thinking about amending the US Constitution so that he can run for a third. If he succeeds, he will be the first to do so, after WWII President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt died in office during his fourth term. The US Constitution was amended thereafter to a two-term limit for presidents.

If India succeeds in signing a trade agreement within this 90 day window with the US it will be the fastest such in its republican history, and augurs well for a more comprehensive FTA to follow. As an opportunity to step into the trade void left by the strained US-China relationship, it is unique, and a chance that India cannot afford to miss.

(1,166 words)

April 22^nd, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

 

The Surprising Paris Court Verdict on Marine Le Pen Is A Blot On French Democracy

In a move, startling from a republic that is the supposedly modern torchbearer of Liberte,Egalite et Fraternite, the latest move smacks of a hatchet-job style dictatorship to fix the political arena. Albeit, it was a longish trial, with all the trappings of proper judicial examination and rigour. But is the judiciary in France, along with its now tottering government, infected with leftist bias?

Earlier this week, a Paris Court judge that banned far-right leader Marine Le Pen from contesting elections for five years acknowledged that the ‘embezzlement’ of Euro 4 million of EU funds between 2004-2016, to pay staff in her National Rally party, rather than parliamentary aides, did nor enrich her or her 24 co-defendants in their personal capacity.

The Paris Court judge described the diverted payments as a ‘democratic bypass’ that deceived both voters and the European Parliament, in what seems to many to be judicial overreach.

Le Pen has been fined Euro 100,000 and sentenced to four years in prison, two of which will be suspended, and the other two served under house arrest with electronic monitoring. But her ban from running for office is with immediate effect, even though she can continue to serve as a lawmaker till new elections are called for. If she is corrupt, how do these niceties work?

All but one of her co-defendants received suspended prison sentences of varying severity also affecting their ability to participate in the political process going forward. Le Pen has vowed to appeal the rulings, calling the verdict ‘political death’ for her personally.

Le Pen’s lawyers argued that the distinction between a politician’s work as a lawmaker and as a party member was artificial. Seeming to agree with this position, President Donald Trump said he had not expected a guilty verdict at all from the court proceedings.

But crucially, with Le Pen banned from contesting for five years, unless the appeal overturns her conviction, the focus has rapidly shifted to her protégé the 29 year-old Jordan Bardella, who could well become the National Rally’s presidential candidate in 2027. He may be inexperienced but Macron himself is still in his forties and began his rising political career much earlier.. Bardella called the rulings an ‘execution’ of democracy on X.

Le Pen can contest the elections in 2032, when she will be 64.

The rampant but unproven suspicion from those who support Le Pen and her National Rally Party, is that President Emmanuel Macron and his La Republique en Marche (LREM), may have worked behind the scenes to try and eliminate a formidable challenger from the fray. Marine Le Pen is the leader of the resurgent Conservative movement in French politics.

Could such a partisan ruling on questionable charges happen in India? Well it did. When the Allahabad High Court overturned Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s election, it resulted in the infamous Emergency. Of course, Mrs. Gandhi was the sitting prime minister at the time, with the entire machinery of government at her disposal. Nothing so dramatic has been tried by the judiciary since.

While Indian politics today routinely tolerates virulent opposition, any such move by the Indian courts against the opposition figures, would certainly activate the anti-India lobbies in Europe, America, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, and amongst dissidents such as Islamic militants and Khalistanis. They would unleash a massive vilification campaign. They would howl for the blood of the ruling ‘Hindu Nationalist Party’ that is dominant in the NDA. 

Fortunately, in India however, that ship seems to have sailed, because the voting public seems to much prefer the BJP and the NDA in most elections.

But surprisingly, little has surfaced by way of criticism in the European media against the bizarre Paris Court ruling.  Marine Le Pen is being supported, not by all the powers that are proxy fighting Russia in Ukraine, but by the other side.

From around the political universe, most conservative leaders have or are beginning to speak up in support.

Macron must have thought that with the confusion over Ukraine and beleaguered European support for its resistance, he could get away with this subversion of democracy at this time. However, many members of the French public per polls conducted after the verdict see it in terms of independence of the judiciary.  Who was polled however? If you poll the left they would signal good riddance of course.

Will the French general elections in 2027, still two years away, be affected? The Russia-Ukraine War is expected to end well before that. America’s support for the Europeans in NATO has already weakened. Other international fora are also in retreat as America withdraws into its ‘America First’ stance. Can Macron’s France carry its own left-of-centre torch in European politics in 2027?

The public has been showing growing preference for Le Pen’s far-right politics, with her finishing as runner-up to Macron as president in both 2017 and 2022. So, will this suspected skullduggery then work against Macron at the hustings?

 Support for Le Pen came in promptly from Hungary and Russia after the rulings. Both condemned them as an attack on democracy. Victor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister expressed solidarity by posting ‘Je Suis Marine!’ The Russian spokesman said the ruling showed a growing tendency to subvert democratic impulses in Western Europe. Particularly those that were conservative and favoured better relations with Russia.

In addition, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk have all spoken up in disapproval of the attempt to ban Le Pen from contesting elections. India, that enjoys excellent relations with Emmanuel Macron led France, particularly in the sphere of defence equipment, has been silent on this matter so far.

President Trump called the verdict ‘a big deal’ and said Le Pen was the leading contender. He also likened it to what was done to him in the lead-up to the 2024 elections in America. Others who have already spoken up in support of Le Pen are Italian League Party boss Matteo Salvini and Dutch populist Geert Wilders. Whatever  be the merits and demerits of the case, the timing of the sharp negative verdict raises more questions than it  lays to rest about the state of democratic norms in France.

(1,030 words)

April 2^nd, 2025

For: Firstpost, News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

India Has Reinforced A Mauritius Advantage In The Indian Ocean

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warmly received in Mauritius for its 57^th National Day celebrations and awarded the country’s highest civilian award during his recent two-day state visit. A large number of MOU’s, numbering eight, were signed. They covered space research, AI, digital health, the ocean economy, pharmaceuticals, ICT, FinTech, Cyber Security and maritime security. India announced a rupee-denominated credit to replace the water pipelines in Mauritius. India has a satellite tracking space station located in Mauritius.

The relationship has just been upgraded to an enhanced strategic partnership with maritime and defence cooperation as its cornerstones. India will continue to extend technology sharing, concessional loans and grants. Prime Minister Modi called Mauritius a bridge between India and the Global South and ‘family’.

The aerial distance between India and Mauritius is 5,247 km. and requires a flight that could take 6 to 8 hours. Its Agalega Islands, north and south, however, are almost half the distance, at 3,000 km from Southern India. This is comparable to that between India and the Maldives (2,200 km), also strategically important to India.

The two Agalega islands, about 25 sq.km. in total area, are 2,500 km southwest of Male in the Maldives where China has made substantial inroads.

India has built a long 3,000 metres runway on Agalega, after an MOU was signed in 2015, and heads of both countries inaugurated it in 2024. A substantial jetty has also been built. Both Mauritius and India deny that The Agalegas, population under 400, dependent mostly on fishing and coconuts, with other supplies coming in by ship, are being developed as an Indian military base. But it certainly helps the marine surveillance of the South Western part of the Indian Ocean both from the air and via radar installations set up by India as in the Port Louis area of the main Mauritius island.

Mauritius has been close to India, even since the British transported a large number of Indians in 1834 to work on the sugar plantations there. Prior to 1810, the French controlled Mauritius and they also took Indians from their holdings in Pondicherry (Puducherry today), and then there were the Dutch before the French. MK Gandhi also stopping by in 1901, and the Mauritius National Day chosen (12^th March) coincides with the start of the Dandi March.

 Mauritius gained its independence from Britain in 1968 and has a population of 1.2 million people, largely of Indian origin. Both French and Creole are spoken on the island. This, in addition to English, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu. Diwali and Holi are celebrated on the island.  

Mauritius has had a defence treaty with India from 1964, and the Mauritius National Security Adviser (NSA) to date is an Indian national.

France, over and above the QUAD countries, also regularly patrols the Indian Ocean Region.

And since 2015, when Prime Minister last visited the island nation, India has done a good deal to ramp up its infrastructure via soft loans and grants of over $1 billion USD. These include a metro system, a hospital, and even a new parliament building presently under construction.

Mauritius is famous in Indian financial circles because a great deal of the FDI (foreign direct investment) into India is routed via the island nation owing to its favourable tax laws and treaties with India. In fact, after Singapore, international companies registered in Mauritius account for the second biggest chunk of FDI. Mauritius, in turn, seeks much greater commercial interest as FDI from other countries, including India.   

Even as China wants to dominate the Indian Ocean with a massive blue water navy, India has strong inherent geographical advantages. Peninsular India not only borders both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal but abuts the Indian Ocean at Kanyakumari.

China has a long way to come from its home bases on the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. However, it has indeed created a number of perches - in Sri Lanka’s largely deserted Hambantota, while India is also prominent on the island, on the Cocos Islands, ironically gifted to Myanmar by India’s then Prime Minister Nehru. Lately, it has made inroads into the cash-strapped Maldives. China has built yet another largely unused port at Gwadar in Baluchistan, now under threat of the latter’s independence movement. Earlier, it had set up a base in Djibouti on the Red Sea. It is currently angling for a port in turbulent Bangladesh as well.

India, on its part, has been modernising its existing ports on both seaboards, building new greenfield and sometimes contiguous ones, including transshipment ports, and setting up state-of-the-art ship repair and ship building facilities.

Some of this has been extended to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as well, alongside tourism infrastructure, particularly as some of them, the Nicobar islands, are very near the Malacca Straits, used extensively by Chinese shipping. The Andamans also overlook busy international shipping lanes.

India’s Lakshadweep Islands are just 820 km from the Maldives, and are now being developed by India both as a naval base and for tourism.  The British-American base at Diego Garcia, nominally owned by Mauritius, occupied by  India’s QUAD partners, is roughly 1,796 km southwest of India. The rest of the Chagos Islands, owned also by Mauritius, have just been returned to it. India has been diplomatically assisting this restoration for a long time.

The Indian ship repair and refurbishment facilities are routinely offered to India’s QUAD partners and other friendly countries active in the IOR (Indian Ocean Region). This is very useful for American and European ships operating in the region but far away from their home bases.

India’s ship-building expansion and modernisation includes submarine and aircraft carrier manufacturing, specialised vessels, ones for the coast guard and  last but not least, in-demand commercial tonnage.

All this capacity is developing rapidly, with an eye to bolstering both India’s commercial shipping status, incorporating the use of India-owned and manufactured ships, as well as for military purposes.

This activity is being fast-tracked in response to the rapid expansion and size of the Chinese capabilities, which are also being extended by China to assist Pakistan in our littoral.

The part that the India-Mauritius relationship plays in the stability and prosperity of the Indian Ocean region cannot be over emphasised.

Also, as India marches on towards becoming the 3^rd largest economy in the world, it engagement with the outside world and how it is viewed by it, is also changing fast. This may increasingly take the shape of out-size alliances with friendly countries farther away, and mergers of those countries and regions that are contiguous for mutual benefit.

(1098 words)

March 14^th 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Who can truly argue that life is not a beach?

‘Life is a Beach’ was a phrase invented to denote that it was both good and great to be in a relaxed, warm frame of mind and body. It was a worthwhile aspiration coined to counter the other negative phrase that ‘Life was a Bitch’. The latter, never mind its sexist connotations, was probably brought on by a slave-driving foreman like the infamous Simon Legree in the Harriet Beecher Stowe classic Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Legree, of course, whipped Uncle Tom to death with a cat ‘o nine tails just because he could. And still Uncle Tom did not complain.

The present top leadership of L&T seems to have stepped right into the proverbial dog poo that an indulgent pet parent neglected to scoop up. And what is worse, the previously obscure Chairman and Managing Director of the group, SNS, short for SN Subrahmanyan from Chennai, trailed his smelly and dirty shoes right into the board room.

Now the matter of his pronouncements on the 90 hour work-week and the even more outrageous one about how long one can stare at one’s wife at home have gone viral on the social and mainstream media. There are many memes. Fellow industrialist Anand Mahindra has posted a picture of himself gazing appreciatively at his own wife in riposte.

L&T, the hoary Indian engineering company now headed by SNS was established by Henning Holck-Larsen, a Danish engineer, along with his fellow school mate and engineer from Copenhagen, Soren Kristian Toubro in 1938. Both the visionary foreigners saw the potential for an engineering-based company in India even before WWII.

The idea for L&T was conceived by the duo during a holiday in the hill-station of Matheran, near then Bombay, and gradually, over their lifetimes, grew into a diverse conglomerate and one of India’s most successful companies.  

L& T is now also doing good work in defence manufacturing, and was previously helmed from 2003, by the legendary and down-to-earth AM Naik, even though SNS was there making his significant contributions to the company from 1984 too.

Naik not only grew the company manifold, turning it entrepreneurial, but successfully staved off a takeover attempt from Reliance Industries. But he never thought it necessary to lecture his coworkers into the necessity of working very long hours beyond the standard 48 hour 9 to 5 week.  

The Tata Group is often thought of as the leitmotif of Indian Industry, culture, and ethics. Some will remember the Homi Mody sponsored TV advertisements for Tata Steel that waxed eloquent on many lifestyle and fun things but ended with the tag line: We Also Make Steel. Many viewers thought it underscored the sheer classiness of the Tata Group.

While comparisons may be thought to be odious, AM Naik, SNS’s boss for many years who took the company to unprecedented heights of profitability and competence did not feel the need to hector his workforce. Personally, he too was a workaholic throughout his career, but that was just how he liked to play it. He did not make it a public virtue or a formula for others to follow, except if you like, by his example.

This whole work-life balance debate has adherents on both sides, but given the number of young CEOs and other young professionals who are dropping dead now, the medical fraternity that says job-induced stress is a killer needs to be heard.

This entire debate was sparked earlier by Narayana Murthy, the now elderly  Kannadiga former boss of Infosys, who appears to have had no life beyond his work, and is extremely proud of it. He asked for a 70 hour-week that he personally followed all his working life. Earlier, he said he has never bothered to read a novel. These men are indeed very successful, very rich, but hardly inspiring. They are more objects of ridicule despite their stellar careers because they may have missed the point of life and living entirely.

This obsession with long hours may also be an Indian thing, because others elsewhere are trying to both cut down their working weeks and trying to retire early. The Japanese company man, now largely extinct in his original form, died from overwork and excessive drinking after hours. They were meant to have lifetime jobs but began to be sacked in droves during the economic downturns through no fault of their own. Strict hierarchy and terms of conduct also took their toll. These same advocates of lengthy working hourse do not hesitate to sack people whenever the bottom line dictates it. Ditto for not paying increments when times are not so good.

If Tata paid all its employees both salary and compensation where applicable when the Taj Hotel in Mumbai was being restored for two years after the ghastly attacks of 26/11, it showed a cultural nobility unmatched by any other business group in India. Those employees who lost their lives, were or would be paid their full salaries and benefits till they would have retired. Their children were or are being educated at company expense.

SNS and Narayana Murthy would do well to learn the obligations of a good company before mouthing off in their bizarre manner like cats who have first swallowed the cream.

Work loyalty, a sense of duty, and esprit de coeur comes amply from the Armed  Forces where people bravely sacrifice their lives for their country. They don’t have to be hectored by fat cat corporate honchos whom nobody can respect for their one-way and graceless view of things like this.

(917 words)

January 13^th, 2025

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee