The anemic and incoherent National Security leadership in India

Weeks in and out, we see that the defence procurement of India is in shambles with ad-hoc buys and eternals delays being the default option with most procurements. Apart from this, there is absolutely no clarity on some of the critical futuristic big platform capabilities with disagreements and various perspectives from different offices still playing out either behind closed doors or sometimes out in the open media.

Let's start with the third aircraft carrier for the Indian Navy that is discussed to no ends by veterans, journalists and defence enthusiasts on social media. There's a lot of doublespeak and/or mismatch between the Navy, the office of the CDS and the government(advised by NSA). "We are very clear that air power at sea is required. If you are a nation that has aspirations and wants to be a $5 trillion economy and do not want to be tethered to the shores...aircraft carriers are absolutely essential," Admiral Karambir Singh said. That's a very interesting statement to make. Cause, usually such a statement would flow from a National Security strategy document framed by the political leadership. The CNS could very well be making a rational statement but it definitely doesn't seem to have the civilian political leadership on board on such a strategy/assessment. Even the CDS doesn't seem to agree with the assessment. Ofcourse the CDS, being the first to occupy the office, comes from a purely Army background without joint command experience and may not have the right appreciation of the maritime domain in IOR to jump to such a conclusion.

Experts have been predicting that #aircraftcarriers will outlive their utility since as early as 1945. Yet, here we are with most naval powers still willing to invest in it in 2020 https://t.co/Fa4GuFItDm

— Firstpost (@firstpost) February 18, 2020

The Navy Chief, the CDS, the NSA and the cabinet need to sit across a table and discuss. The Navy seems to want something the govt doesn't seem to have the will and need to develop and actualize even after 10 years down the line. This mismatch between intentions, capabilities and funding isn't new to India but it does rather broadcast to the outside world how incoherent, rudderless and unprofessional our leadership is, when it comes to national security, secure interests and project power in our area of influence. The question that is being asked and debated in capitals in the region is, how much can India step up in reality to fulfill its obligations and/or secure its interests in the region.


Also both the govt and the CDS have spoken of a refocus towards the continental borders, where we might be facing a 2 front war, in a constrained budget environment. So it increasingly looks like the govt not necessarily disagrees with the Navy's perspective but isn't ready to accept that assessment, as that would force it to fund the third aircraft carrier and a whole host of naval power projection capabilities. This zero sum game is being played ruthlessly and we saw the CNS and CDS shadow boxing through the media.

IAF chief contradicts CDS Rawat, says plan is to buy 114 foreign fighters under Make in India besides LCA Tejas https://t.co/CD2tWGkKAk

— Snehesh Alex Philip (@sneheshphilip) May 18, 2020

The misunderstanding about MWF and MRCA 2.0 between the CDS and the IAF Chief is the second case in point. While the CDS made a statement in May 2020 that the IAF decided to go with the 83 LCA Mk1A instead of the MRCA 2.0 as an indigenous option, the IAF chief was quick to clarify that these are two different procurements and that the MRCA was absolutely necessary to fill certain important gaps in capabilities of the IAF air combat segment. While the LCA Mk1A and the MWF are expected to play a significant part of the future IAF fleet, the IAF leadership seems to not give up on the MRCA fighter. Here it doesn't help that the IAF has been less clear with regards to the MRCA in light of the existing domestic programs that have kicked off. 

It's been more than 3 years since the changes to the institutions of National Security structure have come about with the formation of the Defence Planning Committee(DPC) under NSA Ajit Doval. It includes the Chiefs of Defense Staff, the three Service Chiefs, Defence Secretary, the Foreign Secretary, Expenditure Secretary, Principal Secretary in PMO . The mandate of the DPC included preparing a National Security Document, a capability development plan apart from improving defence manufacturing ecosystem in India.

Where do we stand today? 

The National Security Strategy document is yet to see the light of day. The long term capability development seems more to be run from the Finance ministry than from the Service Headquarters. The NSA and the RM obviously had empowered the office of CDS with wide ranging powers to conduct deep reforms. While the CDS has been successful in bringing about some reforms in functioning, administration and focusing on jointness with regards to logistics, the big ticket reforms still are in the back burner. Not to talk of the big theaterization start-stop drama and the subsequent turf wars that played out over the last month or so. The leadership that was expected from the office of CDS to resolve these issues amicably has clearly been AWOL for multiple reasons. 

From a funding perspective, usually in a list of 10 priorities between the services, we would expect any govt of a sovereignty hawk nation to prioritize and fund atleast 6 of them. But it seems that we might be forced to cut even priority 3 & 4 for the sake of priority 1 & 2 and that speaks of the dire budget situation we have put ourselves in. This is due to a variety of reasons including a relatively poor performing economy, inability to cut down on some welfare schemes and an overall lack of will to take long term bets in terms of capability development. In such a funding anemic environment, the service chiefs are forced to fight it out for capex, to take care of their services' needs. There is only so much efficient one can be with respect to cutting costs and beyond a point it starts to eat up actively into future capability developments for the sake of today's emergencies. 

It is time the national security leadership of the country, stops deciding the strategy, posture and spending on capability development based on the "budget realities" and rather push for primacy of spending on national security albeit in a creative way(separate indigenous capex budget is a start) that can contribute to the economic growth of the nation as well as to the comprehensive national power of the nation. Second, the National Security Strategy document has to come out for everyone to understand what the government has in mind. Only when the government puts ink on paper can the services come out with what's needed to execute the strategy laid out by the national security leadership, and also hold the government of the day to account to fund adequately for the objectives and strategy laid out by the government itself. Else, no amount of political rhetoric, courage and bravery of the soldier on the ground, cries of "regional power" in various fora are going to help us secure our ever expanding interests without big compromises. 

FISITA - 2018 Where is the Indian automotive industry going?

I had the opportunity to attend FISITA - 2018 Automotive World Congress in Chennai on 4th and 5th of October. For those who don't know, the World Congress is one of the largest forums for automotive engineers, executives and professionals to discuss, interact and exchange ideas on emerging trends. 

The theme of this year's event in Chennai was "Disruptive technologies for affordable and sustainable mobility". 

I had the chance to attend couple of technical sessions, a policy discussion on future of electric vehicles in India and the exhibition. Right off, let me say that the event was well organized and had some technical presentations from professionals and academics from across the world. As expected, the presence of domestic automotive companies was dominant. 

Coming to the technical sessions, here is where the wheels come off, with respect to the quality of research and development in the country. Many of the papers, in the session I attended, lacked rigor, depth and little that advanced pre-existing knowledge. I was disappointed that some of the results presented were textbook stuff taught to final year college students in the west. I've attended two editions of the SAE World Congress annually held in Detroit and presented in one of them. I'm sure none of these papers would've passed the peer review stage. I wouldn't entirely blame the engineers. The computational power, type of manpower and the capital that foreign OEMs deploy for product development is order of magnitudes greater than their Indian counterparts. The investment that companies pour in R&D is abysmal in India. 

Moving on to the electric mobility session, focus of the panels were on policy framing and integrating foreign technologies to domestic market. The talk on policy framing is very much welcome. Indian  govt still lacks a coherent understanding of India's needs and a vision for sustainable mobility for the masses. In the absence of high quality human capital, OEMs, policy makers and suppliers in India depend on critical technologies and inputs from outside and tend to design their electric vehicles and the architecture around these technologies. This leads to a mismatch between what is required and what is developed for the market. There was the knee-jerk comparison with China, an EV market that is 20 times larger, couple of order of magnitude more mature with thrust on all areas from encouraging domestic R&D and high end manufacturing, investing in american tech industry to a robust well capitalized policy that puts EV front and center on their mission ahead. 

Coming to the exhibition, it was a nice opportunity for Indian and foreign suppliers and OEMs to interact, learn about each other and explore business opportunities. BMW, Toyota, GM and a bunch of other industry behemoths brought in their concept technologies to display and experience. IIT Madras had some cool development stuff to show. There was obviously the overall upbeat mood that this market provides exciting opportunities in the medium term and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Students from local engineering colleges had the opportunity to display and share their projects and also experience the future of the industry. The disappointing aspect was the lack of thirst amongst Indian companies to capitalize on the opportunity to build a robust homegrown ecosystem. They seem to be happy to invest less, import necessary technologies and build a solution for the short term. 

Lack of human capital, lack of industry-academia research ecosystem and lack of a vision for Indian companies to look beyond the Indian market and into the global markets is keeping our industry couple of decades behind the state of the art. A broken domestic policy that focuses primarily on manufacturing and the jobs it creates doesn't help them either. 

The degradation of Kosasthalaiyar - A story from the skies

The Chennai floods of 2015-16 were devastating to the State Capital Region(SCR) and saw unprecedented flooding of large swathes of the city. In its aftermath, the attention of the civil society rightfully turned on the water bodies in the SCR and its mismanagement. In the recent past, the degradation of Ennore creek and the Kosasthalaiyar river has gained increasing focus in social media and the amonngst the general public. A lot of accusations and counter accusations have been made on the State and Union governments and the various private industries that have cropped up in the region. In this blogpost, I use satellite images of the past 24 years to understand the degradation of this region.

1. Geography

Ennore Creek geography Sat Image credits: Digital Globe Inc

First I would like to layout the geography of the Ennore Creek through this satellite image taken in the month of Sept 2017. 

a) L&T Kattupalli is the shipbuilding yard and container terminal belonging to L&T.

b) NCTPS stands for North Chennai Thermal Power Station (not to be confused with Ennore Thermal Power Station).

c) NTECL (Thermal Power Station of NTPC Taml Nadu Energy Company Ltd).

d) Fly Ash Dump (S) Southern side ash pond closer to NTECL.

e) Fly Ash Dump (N) Northern side ash pond west of Coal and Iron ore terminal.

f) Ennore Port (has multiple coal handling berths, liquid terminal berth, general purpose cargo berth and a container terminal under construction by Adani group.)

g) Coal terminal is operated as Chettinad Coal Terminals led by Chettinad Group.

h) Iron Ore terminal is operated by SICAL led consortium (is envisaged to be converted to a coal terminal).

2. 1994 

I start with the year 1994 when the entire region is mostly untouched by large scale industrial activity. In this image, we can see that the Kosasthalaiyar meanders in parallel to the Ennore coast. The only type of activity seems to be salt pans all over the place in the backwaters and creek. It is unknown as to how the salt pans affected the river flow. They definitely seem to have slowed the river near the mouth. The salt pans though would've definitely acted as buffer during floods and high tides.  

Ennore Creek 1994 Image credits: Google Earth

3. 1997

At this point in time, in the Ennore creek region, the only major industrial activity up and running was the NCTPS. We can see a large ash pond created by the side of the river and fly ash partially deposited on it. The Ennore Port is nowhere to be seen. It is important to note that the first phase of the NCTPS was operational in 1994 and fully completed in 1996.

Ennore 1997 Image Credits: Google Earth

4. 2004

By 2004, satellite images show that the initial phase of Ennore port is complete with captive coal berth for NCTPS and fly ash deposits expanded to another pond. It is important to note that these ponds are mostly on former salt pans and not necessarily on the river itself. Some soil/fly ash deposits could be seen on the Kosasthalaiyar river banks west of Ennore port. This could either be dredged material from port quay or fly ash or simple soil dumps to level land. What is also apparent here is the formation of sandy beach stretch due to the breakwaters.

Ennore 2004 Image Credits: Google Earth

5. 2010

By 2010, new coal and iron ore terminals are under construction smack right through the salt pans and the banks of the Kosasthaliyar river. L&T kattupalli in the north is also under construction. L&T's centre seems to be on barren land, away from the river and not on any water body at the outset. I couldn't draw further conclusions. The coal & iron ore terminals and the associated conveyor belt and rail access definitely pass through the Kosasthalaiyar river banks and at places, over it. We can also see that the fly ash in the Fly ash pond(N) has expanded.

Ennore 2010 Image Credits: Google Earth

6. 2011

By 2011, the state of affairs in the Ennore port region are clear. A HPCL bottling terminal is under construction on reclaimed salt pans south of coal terminals. The associated liquid terminal in Ennore port could also be seen. Construction of NTECL plant south west of it is underway. Fly ash area in the North stays similar.

Ennore 2011 Image Credits: Google Earth

7. 2013

By 2013, two stages of NTECL are under operation alongwith NCTPS. General Cargo(Ro-Ro) berth constructed on barren land in the northern part of port can be seen. Interestingly, fly ash content area goes down in the north ash pond. The breakwater of L&T creates a sandy beach stretch between it and Ennore port.

Ennore 2013 Image Credits: Google Earth

8. 2015

By 2015, fly ash content in north ash pond goes up again. In both 2013 and 2015 images, some soil/ fly ash deposits seen west of NCTPS along Kosasthalaiyar river banks. Rail and road access to expanded Ennore port is provided over these deposits (red circle). 

Ennore 2015 Image Credits: Google Earth

9. 2017

In 2017, fly ash deposit region in the artificial lakes in the north have again expanded. Some deposits seen along Kosasthalaiyar river west of NCTPS. Construction of container terminal(by Adani Group) at Ennore Port is fully underway. At this stage (phase-1), the container terminal by itself doesn't seem to encroach the river. The berths for the terminal are being developed by dredging north western shore of the Ennore port.

Ennore 2017 Image Credits: Google Earth

The master plan of Ennore Port though suggests industrialization and development all through the region around the river and the creek. It is to be seen as to how the buffer between the river, the creek and the port are preserved.

A couple of images related to NTECL. 

In 2005 the land where NTECL is to come up on, has salt pans and an artificially pond for fly ash deposits could be seen. 

NTECL 2005 Image Credits: Google Earth

 In 2016, the same region, NTECL is complete, fly ash could be seen being deposited on the Fly Ash(S) pond now(first image). 

NTECL 2016 Image Credits: Google Earth

Here, I have tried to simply see and interpret the satellite images. The creek even in its original form itself required continuous rehabilitation to protect local ecology and livelihood of the villagers. While, development and industry is welcome, on sensitive areas like this, it is imperative that pollution control and environmental protection measures are carried out to the hilt. With continuous destruction over the past two decades, it has become unidentifiable. I have deliberately avoided attributing blame on individuals, political parties or private players. This neglect seems to have gone through multiple state and union governments with entrenched corrupt bureaucracy and in favor of multiple private players.

What also seems to be apparent is that a sweeping accusation on every industry public/private in the region is also unwarranted. A satellite imagery expert says "Max saving is done by the breakwaters constructed by the L&T and Ennore Port. They have huge potential and really do stop sea waves from harming or damaging the coast". The Ennore stretch is known for its sea erosion issues and this might actually help in reducing its impact. He also concurred on the huge positive impacts of pucca houses that would've come via employment to locals which is necessary to protect from harsh effects of storm and gales. What seems to be missing is the higher priority that needs to be accorded for environmental protection for these projects and huge capital expenditure to use advanced technologies to find innovative solutions. 

My Independence Day thoughts

Some thoughts on India's development processes while celebrating 70 years of independence.

The single most important thing we can do to make India better is to stop assessing it's development metrics as a monolith. With respect to economics, human development, industrialization, health and sanitation, education, employment etc, our variances are very vast! We should stop looking at indices like national GDP growth rate, IIP, gross food grain production, overall budget of healthcare etc. Not to forget the single most useless number, national consumer price index (CPI), that is being used as an inflation monitor by RBI. These numbers hold little value when variances are so large.

The 4 slabs of GST rates is not just an outcome of political shadow boxing, but ground realities of the vast systemic economic differences that exist in our country. We ought to go down to district or panchayat level indicators & indices with respect to healthcare, inflation, education, GDP, sanitation, unemployment figures to understand local effects. We ought to analyze the demography through the prism of class, income and economic condition and study the indices of each segment separately not just geographically.

The number of people who get missed by margins of error in even state based indices could run into millions, offset by few high value data points. E.g., A flash transporters strike may not affect a well stocked reliance fresh store that has good food storage facilities but will affect the street vendors in the same area. This in turn affects the corresponding consumer class in that area.

So, let's hope that our macro policy makers and people in general move beyond single point measures  to more sensible ways of measuring national development indicators that takes into account the diverse variances of the country. 

Of NEET, Patidar & Jat protests, Bhim Army and the fundamental responsibilities of the State

Protests have been erupting across the country on various issues over the years. We've seen the Jat and Patidar protests for reservations in the last couple of years as well as the Bhim army swarming the National capital as well as parts of western UP and Gujarat. Tamil Nadu, moreover, for the last year seems to be in an eternal state of protest for one reason or the other. What ties the suicide of a laborer's daughter in TN, who fought against NEET, to the protests against land acquisition for nuclear power plant in Jaitapur? What ties the Patidar protests in Gujarat and the Jat protests in Haryana to the BJP's landslide victory in UP? The answer to this in my opinion seems to be two fold.

1. The fundamental role of the state is rapidly evolving post May 2014. 

2. The unheard aspirations of huge rural demographics and the information asymmetry that was prevalent earlier is no more with the emergence of social media. 

When PM Modi's BJP was elected to power in May 2014, there was no second questioning about the mandate being a vote of an aspirational India to upward mobility in life. Things like, corruption, appeasement politics of UPA etc were just the final mile mandate converters. But the question lie as to what this aspirational India wanted. The narrative that dominated mainstream media during the campaign period and the early days of NDA-2 was that of a nation making use of it's favorable demographics and economic fundamentals to enable upward mobility and assert itself in the world for it's interests. 

For the first time, economic and foreign policy institutions and think tanks started studying India under Modi as a different animal. The word in vogue was 'Reforms'. Us, the urban educated middle class and upper class wanted reforms to make the govt get rid of it's non performing sectors, reduce massive leakage and mindless subsidies in places where possible and overall, provide a platform for us to compete with the best across the world. Globalization showed us what the world has achieved and what we can if we concentrate on efficient resource and energy allocations. Aadhar linked subsidies, cut in subsidies for petrol, gas, kerosene etc disinvestment in sick PSUs were all results of this. From changing to NITIAayog as a policy based enabler at the centre to rapidly passing environmental clearances for large capital projects across the country, the govt was fulfilling its understood mandate as an enabler of job creation and economic growth. Apparently, this was just one side of the story. 

For the first time in 68 years, the union govt saw it's primary role as an enabler of opportunities rather than an ensurer of welfare for the under privileged. The amount of subsidies in the govt's budget sharply went down. Land acquisition from small owners increased and the instances of big industrialists moving into traditionally untouched spaces (physical and service related) of the underprivileged increased rapidly. While this was seen as minor side effect by the urban dwellers, it hit right through the heart of rural masses. The masses of heartland India didn't necessarily vote for this. They wanted a nanny state, albeit cleaner, in varying degrees. They wanted welfare that was guaranteed by UPA through legislation but never properly implemented. The anti establishment sentiment came from throwing out the obnoxious Lutyens insiders who just sang melodies of welfare and social justice but never understood and implemented it cleanly. The Jat and Patidar protests started when they saw that the role of govt being an enabler was well short of their expectations of a handholder. The bahujans of our country saw the aggregation of state resources away from large scale welfare to privileged sections of society, (who saw themselves as better placed to enable wealth creation and growth) as completely against the ideals of social justice. This explains the farmer suicides, TN methane project protests, the NEET protests, the Bhim Army and JNU protests. 

The urban demography missed this aspect of the 2014 mandate. BJP didn't see it until it lost sorely against the Lohiaites in Bihar and learnt it's lesson. In UP, it shifted decisively to populist politics and the selection of Yogi Adityanath, though had us confounded, resonated well with the rural demography and is the result of this class politics. 

This leads us to a fundamental question. What should be the role of the state in India? Is it's role to ensure social justice and redistribute state's capital and resources to reduce inequality and give opportunities to the millions of underprivileged people? Or is it's role to allocate resources to that sections of society that will maximize output and quality and therefore enable and reward the better performers(whether that is by talent or privilege)? We are at an inflection point where there are millions and millions of people in the aspirational middle class who want the govt as an enabler and yet there are millions and millions of people who depend on state's welfare and affirmative action to move up in life.

It is this question that is being debated and fought on multiple fronts across the country. From the compulsion of Aadhar for subsidies to the forcing of NEET exam on a state. From the large scale allocation of infrastructure projects along the geographical commons (sea coasts and forests) to the conception of Smart cities. From increasing railway ticket costs to providing subsidies to airlines for regional connectivity. The proliferation of social media has decreased the information asymmetry between urban and rural dwellers in India to a large extent and therefore we are going to see more and more protests to this definitive U-turn from welfare politics to free market politics. 

I just hope that each side understand the place and needs of the other to better come up with solutions.

This post is dedicated to the departed soul Anitha who wanted our society to have this debate and fought for it right through the corridors of justice in SC.

The farce called Transfer of Technology

Imagine 50,000 years ago, in a small village, a feud breaks out between a bunch of neanderthals. Every man gets hold of a stone made weapon and begins to sharpen it to attack his opponent. There is one man who doesn't know how to sharpen or make a weapon off a stone. He is confused whether to attack with the blunt stone or not. His instinct says it will not kill his opponent. He looks around and tries to improvise by just imitating the action that the others are doing with their stones. He doesn't know whether he could make the weapon better by tying the stone to a stick to make it a spear. Such a neanderthal is never going to win a battle. His weapon is only as good, if not worse, as he could imitate from the other opponents. 

This is the problem that India has been facing from independence with regards to our country's air combat systems.The famous charade about India's technological prowess is "We have the indigenous technology to send a satellite to Mars but can't develop a fighter jet on our own". It is true and there is only one reason for this. We never knew what we wanted and therefore we never tried. From 1947 till this date, we have never asked the question to ourselves "How do we want to project our air power better than what is best out there?". Our question has always been "What are the air combat systems used the world over and which would suit us best?". And therein lies the fundamental difference between the nascent success of our space programme and the absolute failure of our defence programme.

The idea of "Transfer of Technology" being touted by politicians across the aisle as a success, is a cause as well as symptom of our failing research and development eco system. Since we never knew what we wanted with or for our Air Force, we have always tried to "match up" to the state of the art systems that was available over the decades. In the 60s, when the Mig 21 emerged as a successful fighter jet, we wanted it. Nothing wrong. The idea of a single engine supersonic fighter becoming the backbone of our Air Force was a good vision. It was even better when we acquired the technology to manufacture it locally and we built 650 of them over the decades.

The question is, what did we do after it? A visionary Air Force would've come up with it's own needs, it's own ideas of new concepts for future combat systems. A visionary HAL, having acquired a supersonic aircraft manufacturing technology, would've spent decades understanding the technologies that went into it rather than simply manufacture it blindfolded to the specs.  (The USAF has already specified what kind of future bomber it wants 2 decades from now and has started working on the experimental technologies with Northrop Grumman)Neither the Indian Air Force nor HAL (the only a/c manufacturer) wanted to explore, question and research on the next step in air combat technology. Instead, they looked up to the superpowers to see what the next technology would be. Once the next step came in, the same Transfer of Technology, license mfg cycle followed.

This has been judiciously done for almost all air combat systems. The Sukhoi 30 MKI (air superiority super maneuverable), the Rafale (medium range nuclear strike heavy fighter bomber), the upcoming FGFA PAK-FA(stealth fighter) are all examples of another country/air force inventing next steps in air combat technology and us trying to acquire them. The idea of stealth fighter came from west and we are only co-developing it after three different companies have already done it. We continue to attempt to match/acquire the level of military technology whose agenda and benchmark is being set by someone else. Our fledgling missile programme too started with reverse engineering Russian ballistic missiles and then further developing related technologies from it. Even in such a mature area, ideas of MIRVS and Hypersonic missiles came from the superpowers. The only solace is we are neck and shoulder with them in terms of pace of research and development.

That is why Transfer of Technology is never going to be of any use to India. We don't want to think ahead with the acquired technology. We don't spend time on pushing the frontiers of ideas. We as a country, as a culture, as a civilization have lost the capability to innovate, to think beyond the best. From our air combat systems to transportation systems to e-commerce retailing we are trying to only recreate an idea already proposed and developed by someone else.

Boycott of PK and some fundamental questions

Banning of PK is a retrograde step. It is against freedom of expression. I do not want to see it removed from theatres. Now coming to similar cases, so was banning of Vishwaroopam in TN and The Da Vinci Code in a lot of states when they released. How was that not against freedom of expression? The then TN govt said it cannot control law and order if Vishwaroopam releases. I respect "Emadhu islaamiya sagotharargalin unarvugal". At the end, the final version was cut to satisfy 5.5% of TN population(or actually a dozen ppl). 

Some serious questions arise out of these incidents.

1. As much as minorities have emotions to tend to, don't majority have too?
2. Does the state react to people's sentiments or to the degree of violence that stems from people sentiments?
3. If a state can't assure law and order, why wasn't it removed and Governor's rule imposed? (btw this goes to states if banning PK too)
4. Does 5.5% of population voting as a block becomes more politically significant than 80% of population that votes variably according to it's subgroups?
5. If the above is true, does one fundamental right exercised once in five years have the potential to hold in hostage the other fundamental rights of the majority through the rest of the years?


By this I do not mean to hurt my friends who follow other faiths.
I do not want their sentiments to be hurt also.
I do not want them to see being marginalized in the society.
I do not want to see them being stereotyped as 'those who vandalize if not respected'.

But I want them to understand, that the above factors have been created by few individuals who declare themselves to be representatives of their groups.
I want them to understand that if they do not shun these individuals then the whole community gets the blame.

To the Hindu far right (Bajrang Dal, Hindu Maha Sabha, VHP),
Can you guys please stop acting as if you are living in the 9th century?!
We know what to take out of a movie seriously and what to be left at the theatre hall.
A majority of this country's population was born after the Constitution of India came into existence. We live in The Republic of India and not Hindu Rashtra.
We grew reading our Preamble and Fundamental rights. 
Democracy and pluralism are the two best things that could've happened to India.


To the moral high ground liberal main stream media analysts,
You guys are anyway hopeless and
1. Your minority appeasing commentary confounds me to this day.
2. The idea of crushing the majority to compensate for something that happened in the past is the worst thing to happen in a secular democracy.

The fact that we will be wishing all our friends a happy 2015 in couple of days and yet still haven't figured out how to be a plural tolerant society is a shame on us.

The road ahead for AAP

They came, they saw and they have failed. It happens.

'Welcome to Indian democracy', said 50.5 crore voters on 16th May 2014 in the most emphatic way possible. The Aam Admi party was expected to win between 4 to 10 seats before the elections started and they have won 4, all in Punjab. The more telling fact is that they didn't win even a single seat in Delhi, the place they had their only presence in govt. Winning 4 seats in Punjab is a cause for jubilation as they can easily build on this to consolidate in the state but losing Delhi has left many a supporter and AAP member confused and disappointed.

A lot would be said about how Kejriwal caused his own down fall by resigning from Delhi in 49 days and the leadership contesting from suicidal varanasi and amethi instead of established bases. I would in fact add the 49 days of govt to the debacle list but that's up for debate. Putting the blame on these things actually just ignores some deep systemic flaws present within the organization. To me, the former list of debacles are mainly the result of these systemic flaws and unless rectified, will prove to be severely detrimental to the organization and the cause it stands for.

The most important day for any organization is its day of inception. And AK made the biggest mistake on the day he formed AAP.Till that day, he was running a highly successful anti corruption movement, India Against Corruption(IAC). Something went wrong when IAC transformed to the AAP. For any organization to be successful, there are 4 aspects that need to be in sync with each other. 1. the party agenda, 2. the leadership's vision 3. the expectations of the party workers/members 4. the actual work being done.

IAC was highly successful only because all these 4 aspects were in sync. The movement's agenda was to eradicate corruption, the leadership's vision was to end corruption by finding facts, the public joined the movement for the very same cause and to support them and the implementation was very good in the org exposing the list of people behind corruption with records and facts. The members knew what they wanted of the movement and the movement was doing it successfully. When AAP was formed, it was no more a movement.

These 4 aspects of the organization of AAP were never in sync.

1. Party agenda
A political party fights elections not just to eliminate the bad leaders in the democracy but also to run the country. Nobody knows the agenda of AAP except that it is anti corruption and anti FDI. And the problem is, one doesn't even know if every senior leader of AAP endorses this agenda leave alone the other members. As it turned out, after 49 days of Delhi govt and from its speeches, the party is leftist. Nothing wrong but did the members or the people know about it?

 2. Leadership's vision
AK, until then was perceived as an honest man who just wanted to eradicate corruption. As soon as he formed a political party he had created such huge expectations, that people started perceiving the leader in him from their own ideas of honest leader. People knew AK the anti corruption crusader but nobody knew AK the administrator or leader. Nobody knows the leadership's vision even today. What is Kumar Vishwas's idea on increasing power generation? What is Manish Sisodia's opinion on controlling inflation? Prashant Bushans... ok better let's not ask for his opinions. What is the vision of the party leadership on agriculture, farm loans, expanding manufacturing, increasing jobs? The leadership seems to point out the flaws in the system but doesn't have concrete solutions to any of these.

3. The expectations of the party members

Since 1 and 2 were virtually absent, there was a policy vacuum. A lot of people questioned it and some still blindly follow it but none of them have got answers. The members wanted to know what is the plan of the party for the next 2 years, the elections and the next 5 years. AAP had not spelt it out. As long as 1&2 were vague, the organization at grassroots level did not have a direction and nobody was going to vote AAP to power.

4. The implementation of ideas 
Aah this is the favorite topic of every AAP basher out there. When AAP decided to fight LS elections, what did it have against Narendra Modi's BJP?  BJP had Modi's 12 years of Guj. governance and Vajpayee's legacy embracing almost every aspect of national governance. AAP had only 49 days of dramatic governance to show. Those 49 days could only be described as 'tughlaqish'. I can take a complete blog post on the list of mistakes on those 60 days but to summarize it, 'you don't win 27 seats, then again ask for people's opinion for forming coalition with congress and then ditch them in 49 days'. The word 'decisiveness' was absent in AAP's dictionary. Well,when there is no vision, where can there be decisiveness to achieve it?


Also for this elections, AAP missed the people's mood completely. Here was AAP talking about CPI being not left enough, increasing subsidies, nationalizing some industries and anti FDI while over 15 crore of the electorate was born after the license raj was abolished and India embraced globalization. The CPI itself was out of fashion on the national scene by 2009 LS elections. And AAP's agenda for this elections was to break the system and start from scratch?!! That's the biggest joke of this election. Well AK, you can't repair a flight in air by stopping it. If you don't like the pilot, you just can't keep shouting that he's bad. You need to know how to fly it and also the passengers' destination and safely reach there.

The way forward

Setting these systemic deficiencies right is the way ahead. The party leadership needs to sit down with the rest of the organizational setup and decide upon  aspects 1 and 2 of the organization. What is the agenda of the party in the 21st century where the common man wants deliverable governance. What is the vision of the party leadership apart from a corruption free govt? Discuss these things. The organization from the top leadership to the grassroot level member needs to be clear on message and be on the same page at all times. It needs to come up with an action plan for the next 5 years and a long term vision for the country and individual states. It needs to participate in public debates and allow people to know of its agenda and plans. It needs to understand people's pulse and the needs of the people and try to come up with solutions. More importantly, can it please bring in some experts in different fields with widespread experience? Moral high ground is not going to solve problems, only intellectuals with great ideas can.

Policy making is not a one way traffic but a two way traffic between the leadership and the people. AAP needs to show it's mettle in fighting corruption at grassroots level. The aam aadmi cares more about corruption affecting him directly like at police stations, ration shops, registrar offices and tehsildar's office than that happening at ministerial level. AAP still has public goodwill and imagination. It might not win elections initially, but it stands for something that the people can ill afford to lose.

Right now, AAP is like Penicillin. It is necessary to have in stock and use it in times of need but can't be had as staple diet unless it change completely. All the best.

My two cents...

This article is written at a time when I am taking loans in rupees and paying in dollars. It just pains me so much that because of the govt's short sightedness I need to spend more of my currency for mere survival. Coming directly to the point, the issue of depreciating rupee is of concern not only to me but to most of fellow country men. There have been economic advisory meetings, there has been interviews with Standard and Poor's representatives, RBI governor, our own 'Mum'mohan singh and Pranab Mukherjee. There have been discussions about policy paralysis with respect to current world economic scenario as well as in essential service sectors like Retail and Aviation. With all due respect to all those economic experts whose thoughts would be of much value, I really feel they miss the whole picture here. Let's look at the scenario.

The bulk of our foreign exchange comes from export of software and other IT enabled services.And a major chunk of the reserves go in buying oil from the international market for our needs. The consumption of oil and related products by India is only increasing and that too exponentially. When our consumption increase obviously our foreign exchange reserves are going to drain out. Considering the Eurozone crisis and Barack Obama's tilt towards discouraging outsourcing of jobs from America it is too much for the IT and ITeS sectors to compensate for the outflow of cash.

Atleast Dr. Singh has accepted the fact that amendments need to be made from inside and not in external policies. A one off loosening of law against the Vodafone acqusition tax issue is neither going to solve the problem nor going to bring back enormous investors confidence on India. It seems the decision making machinery runs on the time frame of coalition politics and not on economic implications. Having a coalition partner like TMC is like having a prosthetic leg that is full of infections. Of course its gonna lift you for the time being while forming the government but is definitely going to kill you in the long run. The announcement of FDI in retail and the later withdrawal coupled with the bad timing of the vodafone decision are standing examples. If you have decided on an issue, you shouldn't go back on it due to coalition pressures.

Next comes the aviation sector. If the AI-IA merger is anything to go by, IAS officers aren't necessarily great managers or CEOs in today's market. The lesser it is talked about the better. Combined with promotion of poor business  models in new green field airport projects and revenue curtailing taxation from all departments it is only bleeding the airlines of the little foreign exchange they have. Kingfisher is already packing all its suitcases to leave. To sum up the plight of this sector, 'The govt hasn't understood the industry and the industry hasn't understood the market'.

Now these things will take a long time to clean up and therefore the revenue stream will continue to be plugged in terms of forex. Coming to the most critical part, spending of forex reserves by oil companies is never gonna reduce. If this is the biggest hole in the tank the only way to keep the tank full is by plugging the hole and not by trying to add temporary hose pipes. All the decisions taken now are like hose pipes with limited input. The only solution to this is for us to reduce the dependance on oil. How long are we going to continue importing oil from whatever the rates the OPEC countries sell? We have to face the problem and fight it head on. Instead of spending so much on subsidies the govt can start with investing in future energy research. We just can't wait for the westerners to develop each and every technology that we need and expect them to give it for free. We have the need now and we need to do it now. Diesel and petrol based public transportation system must slowly be phased and replaced with hybrid and other clean energy based systems. Hybrid and electric vehicle technology must be publicised and its importance explained at every possible stage. Investment in renewable energy must be increased exponentially and for god's sake be given to private sector and not public sector.

There will be lobbies against the aforementioned points from different sectors.  To start with, most political parties will be against FDI in retail and the big auto industry will be against the shift towards renewable energy when Ashok Leyland, Daimler, Navistar, Mahindra, Tata etc have just recently invested hell a lot of money here. The solution is to work with them, and give incentives like a promise of  minimum market atleast by the govt to buy the new technology that had come up with.

 After all these scams and licking of coalition boots, this is the only way out. Attending G20 meets and heading ASEAN, BRICS and lobbying for a permanent seat in Security Council is just going to bring reputation and not respect and results. For the latter to happen, the govt needs to be stern and innovative in its policies and decisions and all the way.

Retirement plans for the Big 3 and an Insurance Scheme to Indian cricket

I start writing this article as India enters into the 5th day of the Adelaide(an achievement by itself). Throughout the England and Australian tours, the stalwarts of Indian batting have been ruthlessly asked questions both on and off the field. With around 37,00o test runs between them, people might say all three in their own way have the right to play the Adelaide test and I wouldn't question that. But this cannot continue forever. And if all three are going to retire from Test cricket in 6 months time, its nothing less than a nightmare for Indian cricket.

The talks of seniors mentoring the junior players and helping in smooth transition is rubbish to say the least. Virat Kohli is the only junior batsman on tour to have played with the seniors. Giving small tips in the nets during practice is fine but when will people like Rohit Sharma, Rahane or for that matter any other fringe batsman get used to it or gain experience? It just so happens that the highest run getter, the second highest run getter and the master of second innings rescue are in the same team and at similar stages of cricket life. It means that if all leave at the same time(which is a very good possibility) there will be a huge gap left. It means one of them has to sacrifice himself for the common good of the team. It means the game comes first and then the individual.

Even after this series if none of them retire, its a plague. If the three like playing cricket and still have some left in them, this is their last chance. Retire from int'l cricket one by one. Spend the next one year in the domestic circuit. Play the Ranji, Duleep and Irani trophy. Play matches with the budding cricketers and share your experiences and knowledge there. Teach them in building partnerships and innings while playing along with them. Give them a sense of security that 'the place up there' is where I come from and let me help you now reach there. Spend time in their dressing room. Show them the spirit and hunger. This is the place you learnt everything. Give back something to the alma mater, i.e the domestic circuit. This will go a long way in instilling confidence amongst the youngsters as well as they will get to know a lot before entering the circuit. This is the only way I see a smooth transition of the team in the next couple of years. The best retirement plan that the three can get and the best insurance that team India can get.

And this is the last and best chance to do it. 2 years of home test cricket. No better chance. the scenario is atleast one must retire immediately after this series and atleast one must stay for the next one and a half years. It is in the best interests of Team India that they are doing it. I would like to finish with one last word to the readers. Don't fight on who should retire first. They know better.

The story of a prosperous family

This is the story of a man who started his life in the green meadows of England sowing seeds of sport, spirit and class. As his crop grew popular, he went to different parts of the world to introduce the crop and see how it grows. Let us see its growth in different regions carefully.

First when it was introduced in the Australian outback, the seeds of sport and class grew well and had a bumper crop of class for almost 20 years from 1928 to 1948, thanks to a great worker from there.

Then the man took it to the Indian Subcontinent and the Carribean. The crop's growth in the subcontinent was curious. Once in a while there was a good crop but it couldn't feed the whole bunch. In the Carribean a different breed of the crop grew. Though one can't say that the species of Class was a regular crop here, sport and spirit grew in abundance with a cross breed of ruthlessness. It was the 1970s.

The Australians weren't far behind in understanding the advantages of this crossbreeding and soon used it to maximum effectiveness. In the mean time the old man gave birth to a son, whom the neighbors liked very much and everybody started playing with him. But never was the Old man forgotten. He was always respected wherever he went. Then in the Sub-continent suddenly there was bumper crop in India. In the late 1970s and 1980s both father and son grew in strength and stature through out the world finding excellent workers to work for them.

The advent of 1990s saw the family prosper with some of the best servants of the world to come and work in their fields. The Australian workers tried to cross breed more of ruthlessness to the crop and reaped rich well into the first decade of the new millenium. Meanwhile, the Subcontinental fields saw bumper harvest year after year thanks to some meticulous and hard workers.

At the start of the new millenium the old man became a grand father with a grandson being born in the family. The grandson was playful, enjoyable and much more attractive. In the mean time the Indian station of the old man grew richer and richer and the old man was pleased to see it. The grandchild was given a royal reception in 2008 and it grew with the attention of all the local servants. Slowly the servants started serving the father and the new child and forgot the importance of the old grandfather. As some of the best servants from Australian household retired the father was better served by the Sub-continent or to be precise India.

Came 2011. The father gave the Indian servants a prize for their hard work. But the little 4 year old child still attracted the servants. Instead of taking day off and serve the grand father from next day, the servants played with the child continuously. Then when they got tired, the grand father was completely forgotten. The new servants who grew up with the child, found it difficult to match the discipline and patience of the grand father. And so today on 13th Aug 2011, the grand father left India for his home in England.

The grandfather is Test cricket, the father ODI cricket and the 4 year old child T20(to be precise IPL)

Hope the family comes back to India soon....

Education to become a farmer

"India's economic growth is 8% this fiscal", " The IT industry is really the growth engine of our economy", "Manufacturing sector contributes to the bulk of employment and it will remain our priority", " We want to be the factory of the world". These are some of the common headlines apart from scams and bomb blasts (though I don't find the difference between the two seriously) one sees these days. When I go to a village and ask a farmer what is your son going to do, " My son will become an engineer. When he finishes +2, I will sell this land for his studies" is the reply. From his point of view it is the best way of life. According to them the logical conclusion of education is becoming an engineer or doctor and to earn more money.

But in the process everybody forgets the basic necessity of mankind. Food. I am proud to say that India is an agrarian economy. But India is slowly losing this tag. I see land conversion on around country side. Recently there was a protest in Ooty calling for setting up an IT Park in Nilgiris district. Won't you guys leave even that place. What are we going to do if all land is used up for manufacturing and service sector and nothing for agriculture? So here is a thought that I feel will take care of food security as well as ensure literacy and improve standard of living in the country side of India.

An agricultural university with practical curriculum and ample future. Today's agricultural universities mostly do research in genetic modification, biotech etc but never focus on practical issues faced by farmers. A two year degree course in agriculture for future farmers. Here is the curriculum. A course in fruit sciences and vegetable sciences. Another course in crop sciences. Then a course on soil sciences and geology. These are the basic courses that is needed by all. Apart from these a course on environmental sciences is important in today's context.

Other subjects that are important include irrigation methods. People don't understand and practice modern irrigation methods which is very important. A course on modern farming practices and machineries is also very important. A course on fertilizers would do a world of good to them. There maybe electives in horticulture farming, spice and plantation crops which can be chosen by the students according to the farmland they own. Last and most important, a course on marketing which is a necessity to any farmer. The last semester can be given as a project work that can be used to design new machines and mechanisms or farming methodologies from their learned concepts and past experiences. A stipend amount can be given to the student during the course completion phase.Though there are courses in some of these subjects, it is not for farmers. It is only for researchers, microbiologists and biotech engineers.

Instead of 'Vayalum Vaazhvum' and 'Kisaan ghar' programmes, if these programmes are introduced, It would reach the farmers better and as well as there is a higher probability of people retaining their agricultural lands for farming and lead to rural growth. Why do people come to city? In search of better opportunities and standard of living. If this could be brought to villages then the urban-rural divide will reduce as well as ensure food security and inclusive growth.

The story of the great Indian T2O game

The format is considered the shortest. The event is considered the most flamboyant of all. The brand is considered the costliest of all sporting events. It has achieved in recognizing cricketing talent. Not for India, but for outsiders. The tournament that gave recognition to the talent of Sohail Tanvir, Shaun Marsh, Albie Morkel etc, the tournament that brought back to form players like Dilshan, Kevin Pietersen, the tournament that gave a new lease of life to Gillie, Warnie, Haydos etc, failed miserably in finding local talent. One must remember that the 1st T20 World Cup was won before the advent of IPL.

So what has IPL done to Indian cricket? The already rich cricket board became richer. People from different regions got to see atleast one international level event being hosted by a city nearby for a month.

When Modi was given the task of starting a desi T20 league that could throw away the slowly establishing ICL, his main aim was reach and money and not cricket. So he went the same way as the most popular sporting league event in the world. The English Premier League(EPL). But one must understand that though EPL is the most popular league the national team has won only one World Cup in the long history. That doesn't matter to football fans. National level matches happen occasionally, either the World Cup or Qualifiers or the Euro Cup. Fans have seen loads of club football and are devoted to it much more than to national football. They've grown up enjoying these.

But that is not the case in cricket. For ages we have seen only national and international tournaments at that level and never club tournaments. Also had every team been under the respective state associations, cricket would have taken centre stage and not money. But Modiism isn't about that. Its about extravagance, glamour, money and entertainmant rather than cricket. In what was supposed to be the pitch that should be under spot light, the dugouts and parties became the centre piece and the cricketing part just an add-on but a necessary one. Money ruled the roost.

Also cricket has other aspects of it that needs to be looked into. For example, in the sub continent the pitches will be flat, dusty and the grounds rather small. So the kind of cricket that one plays here is different from the one that he plays Down Under or the Carribean. In a format that is already a batsman's heaven, flat and dusty pitches add more voes to the bowlers. They fail to bring out the best possible talent in the circuit as a batsman is not tested fully and a bowler is let down by the wicket. For example, the Chennai pitch for the CSK-RR match this season was a belter. More than 400 runs scored on a day may be good for entertainment but not for the sport. So there is no point complaining about the T20 debacle.

Including 4 foreign players in a team should be instrumental in mentoring the young players in the team. But from all the three editions of IPL it is clear that the foreign players have been largely responsible for a team's victory.

Case in point is M.Vijay. The day before he had a 400 run opening stand with Abhinav mukund in a Ranji league match. The next day he opened batting for India along with Sehwag against Australia and scored a brisk 40 and 33. This was in India. An year later he scored an audacious 127 against RR that followed another match winning 79 against RCB in IPL-3. But apart from the 48 against Afghanistan, he was struggling in all other matches in the carribean. Definitely his test performances show that he is of international material but he hasn't been exposed to international conditions. This is a very important element.

We have a flamboyant domestic extravaganza that has cricket as a part of it. We don't have proper domestic T20 league like KFC T20 league in Australia. Only when cricket takes centre stage, can we blame that inspite of IPL our players sucked.