Obituary

 Largely A Silent Operator, Ratan Tata Bows Out At 86

Born in December 1937, in pre-independence Bombay, Ratan Tata, the great grandson of the founder Jamsetji, died on October 9^th, 2024, also in Mumbai.

Qualified as an Architect from Cornell University in the US, he joined the Tata Group in 1962 on the shop floor at Tata Steel. At the age of 54, he was handed the top job of Chairman of the Group and Tata Sons, its main holding company. This was by the legendary JRD Tata, who got it approved by the board of Tata Sons, in 1991, when his own health began to fail. Like Ratan, who never married, JRD, though married, was childless.

The year of Ratan’s takeover proved to be both stellar and probably fated. Because it was in 1991 that the PV Narasimha Rao government with Manmohan Singh as finance minister, unshackled the Indian economy, and the Licence-Permit Raj was finally ended. Ratan Tata was able to grow the Tata Group manifold, unfettered by government restrictions, able to invest abroad, taking the turnover from USD 4 billion to USD 100 billion today.  Ratan Tata succeeded in taking a storied but largely domestic company international, largely via a series of audacious acquisitions rolled out at an increasing pace.

And yet, the key to the profitability of the Tata Group under Ratan Tata lay in the revival, expansion and taking public of Tata Computer Services (TCS), in 2004. This was soon after the Indian IT story took the world by storm. Companies like TCS and Infosys became well known in the US and Europe and changed the global image of India. But now we are in the age of AI.

Ratan Tata stayed at the operational helm till 2012, when he turned 75. He continued thereafter to chair the two main Tata trusts Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Ratan Tata Trust which he had controlled since the passing of JRD Tata in 1993. These two trusts together own 66% of Tata Sons and Tata Industries, the other holding company in the group, and wield enormous influence.

Now these two trusts will most likely go to another Tata in the chair, probably Noel Tata, 67, his half-brother. Noel also has three children who bear the Tata name, all in their thirties, and who work in the Tata Group in various capacities presently. Noel Tata is already a trustee in both the trusts.

Ratan Tata returned to operational control over the Tata Group and Tata Sons briefly in 2016, after the ouster of Cyrus Mistry as Chairman of the Group and Tata Sons. This after Ratan Tata had picked Cyrus for the job after great deliberation four years earlier. The detailed reasons about why the falling out happened are not known to the public, and since Cyrus Mistry died in a car crash in 2022 himself, there will probably not be any new information either.

The present Chairman of the operating companies and Tata Sons is N Chandrashekharan, again hand-picked by Ratan Tata from his earlier perch heading Tata Computer Services (TCS). Chandrashekharan has proved to be a very competent manager of the group, and the former architect of the rise of TCS. For the near future, he is likely to stay in place.

Ratan Tata is credited with consolidating the group in the early years after his takeover in 1991. It had drifted into near autonomous units headed by powerful satraps such as Russi Mody whose father had also been Chairman of Tata Sons. There were a clutch of satraps Ratan Tata had to bring to heel, and he did it with his trademark determination and his reputation as a quiet operator. Thereafter, he set about increasing the shareholding of the holding companies in various operating companies to obviate the threat of any hostile takeover. Next, he decided to charge royalties for use of the Tata brand name. After this period of assertion, Ratan Tata became the undisputed leader of the Tata Group and set about a great deal of expansion and diversification. He was also mindful of the Tata values of integrity and trust at all times.

Ratan Tata was very fond of dogs, always keeping a pair of German Shepherds as pets for years, adopting and also looking after strays, providing them dog shelters and letting them sit in the lobby at Bombay House, the Tata HQ and the Taj Mahal Hotel, the group’s flagship hotel. Recently, he set up a hospital for animals, particularly dogs.

In recent years, Ratan Tata also invested in a slew of Start-Ups, partially to encourage young entrepreneurs but also with an eye to potential profits as they develop. A few of his bets paid off handsomely before he passed away. It goes to show that his business instinct was operating well till the last.

Ratan Tata was highly respected nationally and internationally, earning state honours. In his home state of Maharashtra, he has been accorded a state funeral and a day of mourning in his honour. Jharkhand, where Tata Steel operates from, has also declared a day of mourning.

There will no doubt be legacy issues given his many philanthropic activities, the interest in the arts, research, aeroplanes, aviation, with Ratan Tata being a pilot like JRD before him, and India’s progress in aatmanirbhar defence manufacturing in which Tata plays a part. But it will also be interesting to see how the Tata group changes on its way to becoming a trillion USD group in an age when India is to become the third largest economy in the world. This is a far cry from both the world of JRD Tata and his successor for the most part, but something to do them proud.

 (945 words)

October 10^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

 

 

 

Congress Is Front Stage And Centre In Fomenting Anti Modi Government Tropes

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used to invoke ‘the foreign hand’ as an external interference every now and then. It was designed to stir up nationalist sentiment. But in those days, she probably wasn’t aware of the fifth column that operated in her own corridors of power, with high officials and politicians on the payroll of the KGB and the CIA amongst other covert services.

But we know now that her government of nearly two decades was thoroughly riddled with informers, foreign spies, moles. So much so, one wonders why? Was it because she apparently ran a strong government with a leaning towards the Soviets?

What is the scenario in 2024? We have a cheer-leading foreign agency in the form of the Congress Party now. But it is bumbling and gauche. Earnest as it tries to be, the pathetic thing about its open vitriol and lies is that it routinely falls flat on its face. The desperation is writ large. Nothing it does seems to  resonate with the Indian public beyond its band of the already converted. Even the minorities, their traditional vote-banks, have spread out to back other horses in the Indi Alliance.

This issues ominous portents about its prospects in the forthcoming Jharkhand and Maharashtra elections. Their better showing in the 2024 general elections in June seems to have also come at the expense of their allies - a fact that they are now openly grumbling about. Some are saying the Congress is plain arrogant and predatory, and is out to decimate the regional parties.  

The Haryana electorate has, on its part, soundly rejected it, causing the Congress to snatch defeat from the jaws of a widely expected victory in the exit polls. In J&K too, it fared poorly, and the winning National Conference (NC), its pre-poll partner, is disappointed. The likely NC Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said it was quite capable of forming the government with the help of a few independents. Congress was more or less superfluous with its 6 or 7 seats. It was a warning that it should not expect to determine any of the policies.

After the BJP won a majority on its own, with 48 of 90 seats in Haryana, the prime minister gave his customary and congratulatory speech to the victorious organisers, managers, and workers at the BJP HQ in New Delhi. The help received from the RSS was also acknowledged and praised in various quarters. This win gave the BJP an unprecedented third consecutive term in Haryana.

Prime minister Narendra Modi, halfway through his speech, also used it to thoroughly castigate and flay the defeated Congress Party and its leadership. Amongst a slew of substantial accusations, he spelt out how the Congress Party and its leadership is aiding and abetting a foreign conspiracy to malign and target the present Government of India.

It is well publicised that Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader who is the present Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, has been hobnobbing with members of the George Soros organisation and its satellites during his frequent trips abroad. This suggests possible funding as well. George Soros has vowed to bring down the Modi government and what he calls other ‘authoritarian’ governments. A billionaire short-seller that famously shorted the Bank of England in the past, Soros is an elderly Hungarian Jew bristling with a great deal of malice. Somew say he is  a willing instrument of the American deep-state including the CIA. Rahul Gandhi seems to have no difficulty whatsoever collaborating with Soros.

In addition, the entire Gandhi family has signed a secret memorandum of understanding and cooperation with the Chinese at their embassy in New Delhi. The Chinese have reciprocated by investing in the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation which has Sonia Gandhi as its Chairperson. Does China also fund the Congress Party?

In his recent visit to the United States Rahul Gandhi falsely stated Sikhs in India could not wear their turbans and practice their religion in peace. His ridiculous statements, condemned by many prominent Sikhs in India, were endorsed by Khalistani terrorist elements abroad. These included Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US citizen, who regularly threatens violence against Indians, with apparent immunity and protection from the Americans. India has, in contrast, been accused of trying to murder Pannun on American soil. Again, such elements are Rahul Gandhi’s friends.

The Congress Party routinely incites India’s other minority population including the sizeable Muslim population, Christians, the evangelists that are working with them and in states like Tamil Nadu, Punjab, the North East and Andhra Pradesh, against Hindu gurus, the RSS and its affiliates, the BJP, and the Modi government. Rahul Gandhi himself regularly attacks Prime Minister Modi with a torrent of ineffective lies and slander. The fact that his family is renowned for its storied corruption and its pogrom against the Sikhs in 1984, makes splitting the credibility beam difficult.

When Rahul Gandhi is abroad, he is seen conferring with Pakistani activists, those who are against the Indian hold over J&K, other Islamists, elements with links to the ISI, far-left politicians in Britain, and so on. He aptly illustrates the adage that any enemy of the Modi administration is my automatic friend. And yet, for what he alleges is an authoritarian regime,  he is not arrested for sedition when he returns, time after time, after yet another propagandist turn abroad.

This negative bent of mind is largely thought to be fuelled by the Gandhi family’s bitterness at having been kept out of power at the Centre by the electorate for over a decade now. It demonstrates the considerable toxicity abroad, seething with anger at imaginary wrong-doing. The Congress anger is also palpable in parliament, and on the streets here in India. Why is there no popular revolt amongst the farmers, the poor, the Muslims, they seem to be asking in despair?

To some extent the forces opposed to a ‘Hindu majoritarian’ outlook buy into every lie about intolerance, minority bashing, destruction of institutions, cronyism, lack of opportunity, joblessness, rising inequality, communal law-making, and faked economic data.

However, despite the money and expertise poured in, they cannot seem to unseat the ruling dispensation or engineer regime change as elsewhere, most recently in Bangladesh. This is because the Indian electorate is not convinced, and democracy is thriving in India via its stellar Election Commission. The Indian military is strictly apolitical and a coup is unthinkable.

Congress, on its part, doubts the veracity of the EVMs whenever it suits it. It would even have it that India’s growth rates, lauded by the world, are in fact, not true. When we become the third largest economy in the world shortly, the Congress Party is sure to disbelieve and denounce it.

Fortunately, the people of India, unlike some of its friends abroad, do not believe the Congress Party. Now even portions of the opposition INDI alliance are joining in with their disbelief at the farcical goings on led by its crazed joker in chief.

(1,159 words)

October 10^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Racist America Points Fingers At Tolerant Inclusive India Yet Again

America and its majority White people, descendants of often impoverished immigrants from Europe are unable to shed deep prejudices against its black citizens. Blacks from Africa, brought in as slaves to work the southern plantations originally. Today, 350 years and more later, the innate racism results in a regular stream of unfair arrests and convictions, horrendous murders of young, often innocent Blacks, owing to police brutality and trigger happiness.

America is still subjected to protests, riots, arson, loot, and more loss of lives owing to its divisive ways. But not only is it racist, against Blacks, and increasingly, its Hispanic population, but nurses deep religious biases. It is also rabidly anti-Hindu.

Hate crimes against Hindus, both amongst the Indian-American population and visitors, in so-called easy-going California are greater than those directed at Muslims. This violence is highlighted in a recent report by the California Civil Rights Department. Attacks against Hindus are only second to those against Jews. Muslims come third on the list. Presumably Christians, particularly White ones, are exempt. California may not be representative of the whole country but is certainly one of its most prominent states. And it is not south of the Mason-Dixon Line, infamous for the excesses of the ‘Deep South’ against Blacks.

So every attempt to point fingers at distant India, albeit instigated mostly by people of Pakistani origin or Christian evangelists, fall into the category of brazen and rank hypocrisy. But it doesn’t stop the likes of high officials such as Anthony Blinken, a Jewish Secretary of State himself, from criticising India’s alleged human rights abuses.

Usually, the unfair and mistaken criticism does not come from presidents and secretaries of state, but much lower down the ladder. Though ‘liberal’ Democrat President Obama even used a state visit to India to make anti-India remarks, just before he left for the airport at the end of his Delhi visit.

Most of the criticism comes from fairly obscure lobbies funded by Pakistan’s ISI or China to put out anti-India articles and reports.

The latest report in question, from USCIRF, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, alleged worsening of religious freedom  in India and called for it to be designated a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC).  

The USCIRF features unknowns and dubious people as Commissioners. People such as Mohamed Elsanousi, educated in Pakistan, Maureen Ferguson, a Christian missionary, Susie Gelman, a Jew, another Christian missionary - Vicky Hartzler, Asif Mahmood, a Pakistani national, and so on.

Anthony Blinken is surprisingly quoted as saying - ‘In India we see a concerning increase in anti-conversion laws, hate speech, demolition of homes and places of worship of members of minority faith communities’. That he is endorsing the complaints of reduced operating room in India for American Christian evangelists, a powerful group in US politics, seems obvious. Blinken seems to have tacked on the rest of his sweeping statement for ballast. But the impression he gives is that he endorses the report sections on India.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has dismissed the USCIRF report outright. The part criticising India and attempting to spread misinformation was authored by a Muslim Senior Policy Analyst Sema Hasan. The US government, busy improving its engagement with India on multiple fronts, has so far declined to act on the repeated urgings of the USCIRF to declare it a CPC.

It is doubtful whether Hasan and cohorts have any first-hand knowledge of conditions in India. The effort is clearly to malign, using a barrage of false propaganda disguised as a responsible document.

In the recent UN meetings, Tukiye President Erdogan pointedly dropped his mention of Kashmir. This after mentioning it in highly anti-India terms since 2019. This can’t be pleasing to the Pakistanis and others trying to drum up support against India. How many more countries, previously hostile to India, will change stance as India powers its way towards becoming the 3^rd largest economy in the world very soon.

The USCIRF report criticises the Citizen (Amendment) Act, (CAA), probably because it excludes Muslim refugees. Of course, Muslims, including Pakistanis can apply for Indian citizenship by other routes. Singer Adnan Sami did so, and is now an Indian citizen.

The criticism from USCIRF does not however take into account the dwindling Hindu and other minority populations, their deep persecution and worse, in the Muslim majority countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It talks instead of beatings, lynchings, arrests of religious leaders, homes and places of worship demolished in India. It does not balance its reportage with  reports of Muslim vandalism in Hindu temples, rapes, abductions and murders under so-called ‘love jihad’, attacks on Hindu processions in Muslim majority areas, intemperate threats and abuse voiced against Hindus in  public speeches, mosques, on national television. It does not write about the fact that the minority populations, particularly that of Muslims, has grown substantially over the 75 years since independence. It now accounts for nearly 20% of the overall population of India.  Indian Muslims, no second-class citizens, are prominent in various walks of life in India including the armed forces, the judiciary, the election commission, in government bureaucracies, in the corporate world, in parliament and the state assemblies, in municipalities, the arts, popular entertainment including films, and the digital streaming platforms.

The US chooses to take a blinkered view on occasion officially, probably to pander to its internal lobbies. The problem is with the anti-India portions of the media, academia, and the think-tanks that have made a profession of distributing lies.

Is it any wonder that the MEA dismisses such reports with the contempt it deserves?  

America would be better served if it took the mote out of its own eye, as the Bible advises, and use the clearer vision to set its own fractured house in order.     

(959 words)

October 4^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Modi At 74 Marks Three Decades At The Top

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the first top leader of enduring durability who has come from humble beginnings. He is the first prime minister to emerge from state leadership ever in India’s history after independence. Once a provincial leader, Narendra Modi burst onto the sophisticated political constructs at the centre with the first thumping majority in 30 years. This, for himself, and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), that he heads.

Over the decade from 2014 to 2024, he has emerged as a charismatic, respected, and visionary global leader, much sought after in international fora including BRICS, ASEAN and many others.

If India is invited routinely to the G-7 gatherings as a guest, it is due in no small measure to Modi’s stature. The G-7 is reckoned to be the gathering of the most powerful countries in the world, including all five of the permanent UNSC countries who possess a veto.

Modi is counted as the leader not only of an India soon to become the 3^rd largest major economy in the world, behind only the United States and China, but also as a sponsor of the Global South. During the year-long leadership of the G-20 that India enjoyed recently, Modi was instrumental in bringing in the countries of the African Union, more than 50 in number, into the G-20. And this, with unanimous backing from the others. The G-20 became G-21 thereafter, with a view to creating a more equitable world.

While the G-21 grows in importance, the influence of the UN and its general assembly has waned, due to factionalism, an overweening influence of China, financial problems, and other complications.

The elevated stature for Narendra Modi has come, unlike so many others from the emerging economies or indeed the dominant West, without benefit of an expensive Western education, or the backing of a rich and influential family.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi marks his 74^th birthday today with fifteen years as CM of Gujarat, and a decade as PM at the centre, all the while without the slightest taint of corruption. This, is itself is a rarity in the world of politics. He has consistently enjoyed popularity ratings in the 70 plus percentile, both while at state, and at the centre. This is a phenomenon perhaps no other global politician has matched.

Mao, Castro and Stalin, may have claimed such levels of popularity, or even higher, but they did not operate in or run democracies. Their God-like personality cults were manufactured by their own state machines.

On his birthday today, Prime Minister Modi is working hard as usual. He is inaugurating 26 lakh PM Awas Yojana houses at the slum area of Gadakana in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. Odisha has recently elected the BJP to rule the state. After interacting with some of the beneficiaries there at Gadakana, he will go to the Janata Maidan in the city to officially launch the Subhadra Yojana, under which Rs.10,000 will be given to over 1 crore poor women every year, in two equal instalments, for a period of five years.

The marked difference in this as well as all the welfare schemes launched during the Modi decade at the centre, is the phenomenon of direct benefit transfer, digitally, into millions of newly created bank accounts. A revolution has taken place in banking the unbanked, and the consequent removal of middlemen and rent collectors.

In addition, Prime Minister Modi will unveil railway projects worth Rs 2,871 crores and highway infrastructure projects worth Rs 1,000 crores today.

 Prime Minister Modi and his team, mainly National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar are said to be working hard behind the scenes to bring about an end to the Ukraine-Russia War. Other interlocuters suggested by Russian President Vladimir Putin are Chinese President Xi Jinping, his staunch ally, and current chair of the G-21, the Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. But of the three heads of government, Prime Minister Modi enjoys the trust and backing of both sides, including President Joe Biden of America and Vlodymyr Zelinsky of Ukraine. Bringing about a cessation of hostilities in Europe will have profound consequences for the whole world.

In addition, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced that 75% of the border disputes with China have been resolved, with every expectation that the 25% remaining issues along the LaC will also be shortly resolved. This sounds near miraculous given the border skirmishes at Galwan and Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang area. This favourable development has been corroborated by the Chinese as well. There is an anticipation that the remaining 25% of the border issues that China calls legacy issues from the time of the UPA government, including the encroachment within Indian territory in the Depsang Plateau, may be resolved, by the time Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping meet at the BRICS Summit in October 2024.

Easing of border tensions with China will be nothing short of a diplomatic breakthrough, clearing the way to renewed engagement on multiple issues between India and China. It will also weaken the Pakistani threat and levels of terrorism it sponsors against India.

The India-China standoff at the LaC has vitiated the atmosphere for the last decade, eroding trust between the two countries, and resulting in other powers exploiting the situation for their benefit.

With regard to China, many issues remain, of course, such as its attempt to dominate the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the immediate areas around peninsular India. There is also the belligerence displayed by China in the East and South China Seas, and towards Taiwan. The attempt to dominate most of South East Asia on a near unilateral basis is also problematic. A change of policy may now be in the works, because China is in considerable economic trouble.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent behind the scenes diplomatic initiatives with China may result in enhanced and visionary cooperation between India, China, and Russia, rewriting some aspects of geopolitics and multilateralism.

One is already mooted - an initiative in Space to build a nuclear power plant on the moon for a future human lunar colony. Will North Korea join in too?

An easing of India-China tension will not only increase Mr. Modi’s and India’s stature in the world, but afford Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government greater leverage in negotiating with America and the West over various issues. These include trade, defence cooperation and technology transfer. It might also reduce pressure and the subversion from the Western deep state to weaken Modi’s hold on power, and isolate Russia and China from India.

Other international initiatives include the efforts to create new transport corridors to Europe via West Asia as well as Iran and Russia. These promise greater ease of doing business, despite temporary setbacks from the Israel-Gaza War, the troubles from Houthi/Somali pirate attacks in the Red Sea, and the bottlenecks at the Suez Canal. This after a ramping up of trade cooperation with the UAE, Israel, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt with some free trade agreements amongst them.

A number of free trade agreements (FTAs) are in the works in Europe, and one with non- EU Europe that includes Switzerland, has already been concluded.

Prime Minister Modi’s 74^th birthday coincides with 100 days of Modi 3.0 and the work that is ongoing. The continuity of three consecutive terms has provided stability and a commendable GDP growth rate of around 7% per annum. Infrastructure development, defence, aatmanirbhar  armaments manufacturing, with exports to the US, Armenia, the Philippines. There are new initiatives in electronics manufacture under the China plus one programme, electronic chip-making with huge domestic and export potential. More development of the automotive sector, improvement in agricultural practices, massive infrastructure development, indigenous nuclear power plants. These are just some of the benefits of the Modi decade as well as the 100 days.

Work being done on the Wakf Bill, the Uniform or Secular Civil Code, progress towards ‘one nation, one election’, are all pathbreaking in nature and will all see the light of day during this term till 2029.

There is an enormous amount that needs to be tackled yet. The reform of the overburdened judiciary is a case in point.

Religious tourism, probably the biggest driver of all in India, has been set alight by the transformation of Ayodhya which is receiving many more visitors than Varanasi now. Mathura, Ujjain, the Char Dhams, Vaishnodevi, the ongoing renovations at Varanasi, are all initiated for the first time.  

The endless visionary aspects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are far ahead of his predecessors in the job. Combined with his extraordinary and single-minded appetite for work, it makes for an unstoppable combination. For the first time, most slogans, it is seen, turn into reality. It is entirely credible that India will be a prosperous developed country of nearly 1.7 billion souls by 2047, our centenary year. Our potential will be realised.

If today, our time has come to restore India to the glory it once had in ancient times, there is no better person to see it on its way. We are fortunate to have such a selfless and dedicated leader. India, that is Bharat, owes Narendra Modi a debt of gratitude.

(1537 words)

September 17^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

Modi Goes Shopping For LNG From Brunei, Semiconductors From Singapore

Prime Minister Narendra Modi supported by officials of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, have just undertaken a couple of strategic bilateral visits. These are designed to increase its profile in China’s backyard even as it has been trying to dominate and bully the ASEAN region, the countries bordering the East and South China Sea and indeed farther afield. And, of course, they hold great potential for an increase in bilateral trade and cooperation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been the first Indian head of government to visit the strategically located and oil rich island of Brunei to boost bilateral ties and economic activity. The Indian expatriate and ethnic community were greatly enthused by the short visit, and Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, 29^th in his line of rulers, laid out a red-carpet welcome second to none.

This despite Borneo’s location in the Malay Archipelago, southeast of the Malay Peninsula, and southwest of the Philippines. It is therefore not at all far from China and the South China Sea, risking a possible menace from China for warming up towards India.

Borneo is however, very close to the Western powers, and has nothing to fear in waters regularly patrolled by the US Navy. India, as a member of QUAD, and under its Act East Policy, is upgrading its neglected relationship with the island nation.  

A new chancery was inaugurated at the Indian High Commission, located near the US Embassy, on this 40^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Brunei.

News reports state that the moderate Islamic nation of Borneo and India have agreed to engage in the areas of Defence, Space, and long-term supply of LNG to India. India currently imports a lot of its long-term supplies of LNG from Qatar.

A regular flight between the Borneo capital of Bandar Seri Begawan and Chennai was also announced.

 Prime Minister Modi went to Singapore next, the tiny Asian country with first world standards, on a two-day visit. Singapore is a much more familiar destination for our prime minister, and there have been steady bilateral visits from both sides over the years. Singapore has participated in the Malabar military exercises with India, alongside Japan and Australia. In addition, Singapore and India conduct another naval exercise bilaterally, called SIMBEX, held on a regular basis. All this, even though it also enjoys a good relationship with China. Singapore is a major transshipment port for China, amongst other things.

Again, like Borneo, there is a large, historically present ethnic Indian community in Singapore, in addition to modern residencies, comings and goings.  Indians like to invest in Singapore real-estate, Indian students go there for secondary and higher education, renowned as it is for its high academic standards, discipline, safety, and strong law and order matrix. Singapore is also favoured as a regional HQ for a large number of US and European companies.

Prime Minister Modi met with his counterpart Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. President Tharman Shanmugaratnam (of ethnic Indian or Sri Lankan origin from the days of British indentured labour, after the abolition of slavery, into then Malaya), Senior Minister Hsien Loong and Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. He has also met with leading members of the business community and the Indian diaspora.

Singapore citizens trace their ancestry mainly to Malaysia, China, and India, going back to the Malayan rubber plantation days of the British Empire.

Singapore is already India’s largest trading partner in Asia, with a trade value of $ 36.6 billion, and is a key partner in its ‘Act East’ Policy. In 2023, Singapore was the largest FDI investor in India, at $ 11.77 billion.

The two prime ministers, Modi and Wong, visited a leading Singaporean company, AEM Holdings Ltd., in the semiconductors and electronics sector, and discussed collaboration in this high-technology area.

During the visit, the two countries raised their bilateral cooperation to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’. This as an upgrade of the existing Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA),  there as of June 2005, which eliminated tariffs on 81% of Singapore exports to India.

The two countries signed four MoUs now, including one on collaboration in the Semiconductor Industry. The other three were to do with Educational Cooperation and Skill Development, in the field of Health and Medicine, and in the rapidly growing field of Digital Technologies.

Singapore had earlier agreed to be a prime-mover in promoting the involvement of India in the ASEAN countries, where China is most prominent.

Singapore is part of the global semiconductor value chain and is keen to invest in India to develop semiconductor clusters, as well as develop Indian talent in design and manufacturing. India, on its part is equally enthusiastic to grow this trillion-dollar opportunity along with its emerging electronic chip industry.

(786 words)

September 5^th, 2024

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

 

Bottom Of Pyramid Leg Up  Jan Dhan Yojana Completes 10 years With 54 Crore Accounts

 It is the 10^th anniversary of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), programme. It was announced by the prime minister from the ramparts of Red Fort on 15^th August 2014. As a scheme for financial inclusion and gradual financial literacy amongst people who were not allowed to own bank accounts before its advent, it is nothing short of revolutionary. It is designed to impart dignity to, and  empower the unbanked poor. It has, in practice, particularly led to the enthusiastic use of grass-roots women entrepreneurs. They have taken to the formal banking system in a big way. Because of their sense of financial responsibility/discipline, in their borrowing and payback habits,  they have been one of its biggest beneficiaries.

One could open a Jan Dhan Account, if necessary, with zero balance, no questions asked. All the public sector unit (PSU) banks participated in mission mode, responding to the call from the prime minister. Lakhs of accounts were opened in a single day under the programme when it was first introduced.

Once the bank accounts were open, they offered overdrafts and loans in due course to people with no collateral or references beyond their own track record.

After a decade of operations, there are 53.13 crore accounts, with Rs. 2,31,000 crores deposited in them. Some 55.6% of them are owned by women who did not need a father, a brother, a husband or a reference to open one. The average balance in these accounts is now Rs. 4,300 odd. Two-thirds of all the accounts are in rural and semi-urban areas according to the Ministry of Finance.

The overall financial inclusion rate, defined by owning and using a proper bank account, has gone up from 25% of the adult population in 2008, to 80% today. This achievement in just a decade is considered phenomenal, given that the adult population today is more than a billion people.

These plain savings accounts have been used, over the decade, for direct benefit transfers from the government without leakages caused by the middlemen of the past. They were used to distribute financial assistance during Covid. They are used for subsidies given under the PM-KISAN programme, for disbursing wages under MGNREGA. They are used in providing life and health insurance covers free of charge by the government.

The processes used are vastly aided by the government induced digital revolution of the last few years, RU Pay debit cards, some 36 crores of them were issued to these account holders. UPI transactions have shot through the roof, with over Rs. 13,000 crores in transactions. The ubiquitous Aadhar Card for identity verification is linked to the widespread use of mobile phones.

A number of other government programmes, such as MUDRA loans for the MSME Sector use the Jan Dhan accounts as the basis for transactions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi points out that the Congress’ Indira Gandhi led government nationalised many banks, in the name of socialism, and ostensibly to help the poor, but the target audience remained unbanked for decades yet.

This NDA government, and the prime minister, are well-aware that some 80% of all employment in India is in the informal sector, with low wages, and inadequate benefits. However, there is a great aspiration to join the formal employment sector. The government is therefore laying great and fresh emphasis on apprenticeship and skilling, with an outlay of over Rs. 2 trillion in the recent union budget of July 2024. The money will provide internship funds and other incentives to both prospective employers and aspirants to formal sector jobs. These new initiatives, again in tandem with the Jan Dhan Yojana, are yeoman efforts to address the needs of those at the bottom of the pyramid.

The fact that the Jan Dhan Yojana is such a roaring success is admired and studied by other governments in various parts of the world. The out-of-the-box thinking and digitisation revolution that has made its success possible is enabling India to catch up to the developed West in many other ways too. The sheer numbers of people involved would make any manual process take decades, but implementing it via a biometric enabled identity card like Aadhar was the key.

That too was an early revolution under the Modi regime, leveraging India’s prowess  in IT led by the current Infosys Non-Executive Chairman Nandan Nilekani. It should not be overlooked that Nilekani has just coined a new term ‘Fininternet’, meaning a marriage of  real-time financial information from multiple sources and parameters, and the world-wide web. Why? For better informed decision-making, of course. How many Jan Dhan Yojana sophisticates, once the ignored, will use it when it comes?

(771 words)

August 29^th, 2024

For: Firstpost, News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee

 

The Perversity Of The Bhadralok Writ Large In Whataboutery

If it wasn’t for some quick student intervention, in support of outraged doctors and medical support staff,  the equally fast attempt at a cover up would probably have worked. Call it the Justice For Abhaya Movement.

The Kolkata intelligentsia, the vaunted and storied bhadralok, has lost its nerve in the face of lathi charges and tear gas. It sold out to the Mamata Banerjee government a decade ago and to the Communists who ruled for 34 years before that. The spine of the bhadralok, at the vanguard of leadership and reform in the 19^th century is broken.

So in the beginning of this protest it maintained a frightened silence and made only anodyne statements  days later carefully vetted to avoid giving offence to Mamata Banerjee and her cabinet. Perhaps they are more afraid of the TMC goon squads and the violence they can unleash.  They are probably wise to cower under the circumstances. Certainly, they are right to not expect any help or protection from the West Bengal police if they criticise the government or the party.

The Bengal BJP however is trying its best to attack the government via mega protest rallies. It is being stopped 4 km before  they can reach Swasthya Bhavan or the health ministry.

The handling of the latest ghastly rape and murder in Kolkata by the West Bengal police has shocked the whole nation in its blatant effort to destroy evidence, disturb the crime site, and protect the perpetrators.

But then, it was just as casual in its handling of the Sandeshkhali rapes of 2024 which they blamed on the BJP, the Hanskhali rape of 2022, the Kamduni gang-rapes of 2013 blamed on the Communists, the Park Street rape of 2012 where the victim was called a prostitute. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself set the stage, with her bizarre if self- serving remarks in each instance, and the state police that reports to her, took their cue from it. But this time, they might, or might not, be able to keep control.

The swaggering young principal of the R G Kar Medical College, Dr Sandip Ghosh, is the main villain of the piece. He  was grilled by the CBI. Ghosh, familiar with cases like this from earlier in his career, is puffed up with state government backing. He tried to pass it off as a suicide at first. He might have got away with it by brow-beating the poor parents and withholding the broken body till they caved in. But things spiralled up rapidly.

 The other doctors and medical staff, and not just in this establishment, but from all over Kolkata, West Bengal, and elsewhere in the country, the students in Kolkata and nationally, the outraged social media, the Calcutta High Court that forced the state government to hand over investigations to the CBI, the Supreme Court that took suo moto notice of the savage gang rape, torture, and murder all played their part. The relentless media coverage also did its best to prevent the cover up and secure justice for the victim.

After Dr Sandip Ghosh stepped down, the other senior doctors at the college were initially retained to take his place, but were swept out and transferred to other government state hospitals in Kolkata, four of them in all, including the head of the department of Chest Medicine, the victim’s department, at the insistence of the student protesters. The swelling discontent is now asking for the resignation of Mamata Banerjee.

 The savage treatment meted out to a 31 year-old post-graduate trainee woman doctor, an only child from a poor family, in a leading Kolkata government hospital, was reminiscent in its brutality and callousness to the Nirbhaya gang rape, torture and murder in New Delhi more a decade ago in 2012. It is as if nothing has changed between Nirbhaya and Abhaya despite tightening of the rape laws.

But the Kolkata Bhadralok that should have jumped into the fray with fierce condemnation, were sorely wanting. West Bengal with its revered Durga Puja and Kali Puja coming up shortly and its pretensions to being cultured, was  once thought to be most respectful of women. But, if that ever existed in reality, it clearly does not exist now. The bhadralok, vociferous in support of various TMC initiatives, has nothing much to say in this instance. Instead, it is in agreement with the TMC line that horrible rapes followed by murders take place regularly in other states too. They are indeed unfortunate and tragic, but the West Bengal government and its police department were being singled out and unfairly targeted. Much of the opposition in the INDI Alliance echoed these sentiments too. On social media they point out the recent rape and murder in Dehradun. They are willing to wear black bands.

To compound the lack of empathy in most cases, some said the unfortunate victim must have done something to deserve it. She was allegedly about to expose corruption involving medicines, hospital beds, sale of cadavers, and this had angered a lot of people. Was she blackmailing some people? What was she doing in the conference room so late at night? Why had she accepted night shift work at all?

The students and fellow doctors and the odd outraged citizen protested, of course, and were threatened roundly by the TMC goons for their trouble. TMC ministers threatened to sack the protesting doctors and dock their pay till the Supreme Court said they will not be penalised.  One former female TMC member of parliament was threatened with rape online for supporting the protests. A twelve-year old boy was arrested for wishing harm to the chief minister.  Mamata Banerjee is also the home minister with the police reporting directly to her.

The police did such a clumsy cover up job that the three judge Supreme Court bench, including the CJI, holding live televised hearings of the proceedings was appalled. Why, for instance, was the FIR filed, not by the medical college, but the hapless father of the victim, after the post-mortem was conducted? Other reports say the FIR was filed some hours after the hurried cremation of the unfortunate victim.

The question in everyone’s mind is why is Mamata Banerjee and the TMC so keen to cover-up this affair? Why was the dissenting TMC functionary who spoke in favour of the victim hauled up? What was going on in RG Kar Medical College that the victim was likely to have exposed?

How many rapists and abusers were involved, and who are they, in addition to the sole person arrested, a totally remorseless Sanjoy Roy, who was apparently part of the erstwhile principal Dr Sandip Ghosh’s security team. He was allowed to live in the adjacent police barracks. This, even though he was only a volunteer and general tout.  Roy is said to be mentally disturbed and perverse, with a smart phone full of pornography. He was allegedly a frequent visitor to the Kolkata red-light district of Sonagachhi. Were the other perpetrators doctors too? Sanjoy Roy is not talking.

The CBI has submitted its findings in a sealed cover to the Supreme Court (SC), and the hearings are ongoing. However not only the Kolkata police but the West Bengal government has been criticised by the SC.

The West Bengal government is being represented by Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, while the CBI is represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The SC has now mandated that the CRPF will guard the RG Kar Medical College in addition to the Kolkata police going forward. The failure of law and order, a state subject, is clearly pointed towards. Right now, the Rapid Action Force has been brought in to control the protests.

Just like in Bangladesh, where the intelligentsia was in support of the Awami League and the erstwhile government of Sheikh Hasina, the Kolkata bhadralok is highly compromised.  As they abdicated all responsibility in terms of a vocal presence, it was up to the students and opposition BNP supported by the Islamists. It was they who took the  allegedly undemocratic Sheikh Hasina government down - with crucial help from the Bangladesh Army after the police failed the protestors. Will this volatile situation in Kolkata escalate into a popular revolt against the Mamata Banerjee government? It will surely be supported by the Bengal BJP which is the principal opposition. Meanwhile the crack downs against all protests continue while questions about democracy are raised, not by the bhadralok, but the media.

(1,412 words)

August 22^nd 2024

For: Squirrels.in

Gautam Mukherjee