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Asian Voice | 11th March 2017
Manoj Ladwa
Strategic Advisor - Global Business & Government
Time to put real thrust behind India’s soft power India’s cultural diplomacy is entrenched in ‘babudom’. It must urgently get some real teeth and direction to reflect the aspirations of a new India, writes India Inc. CEO Manoj Ladwa. Most Indians still don’t know much about Brazil beyond the facts that it is a fellow BRICS nation and the land of footballer Pele. It would be fairly accurate to say that most Brazilians, too, know only as much about India as Indians know about them, though it is doubtful if they have heard of Sachin Tendulkar, India’s answer to the greatest footballer ever. So, it came as a pleasant surprise to learn that the carnival at Sao Paulo, a festival leading up to the Christian fasting period of Lent, has received a new cultural input. Yes, Bhangra, that earthy and energetic Punjabi folk dance, has been gaining ground in the land of the Samba and the fusion of the two styles already has a new name – Sambra. Organised for the first time last year by Sao Paulo’s 3,000-strong Indian community, Sambra has gained traction with five times as many locals joining in this year, according to reports in the media. But why am I surprised? In 2009, a love story set in India about an upper class girl falling in love with a poor boy and the subsequent machinations of the girl’s evil family to keep them apart, had captivated Brazilian TV viewers and became that country’s leading soap opera. And here’s the icing on the cake: it wasn’t even an Indian production. The teleseries, ‘Caminho Das Indias’, was an allBrazilian work, written, directed, produced and
acted in by Brazilians. Now that’s what I call soft power, which Wikipedia describes as “… a concept developed by Joseph Nye of Harvard University to describe the ability to attract and coopt rather than by coercion (hard power), using force or giving money as a means of persuasion. Soft power is the ability to shape the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defining feature of soft power is that it is non-coercive; the currency of soft power is culture, political values, and foreign policies”. At a time when the two great democracies on either side of the Atlantic Ocean seem to be pulling up the drawbridge on foreign (and especially Indian) talent, and xenophobia is being fanned in France, the Netherlands and other liberal democracies of Western Europe by the likes of Marine Le Penn, Geert Wilder and others of their ilk, India’s soft power, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inclusive message of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (Discrimination Against None, Development For All) can serve as a template for cooperation among different peoples. I’m not saying this only out of a sense of goodwill for my fellow human beings. Soft power, and the sense of shared values it propagates, is a very sound foundation on which to build large economic and trade-related edifices. Just look at history. In nine cases of out 10, you will see that each country’s largest trading partners are also the ones with which it has the greatest cultural connections. In the era when Britannia ruled the waves, the British stiff upper lip was the symbol of high culture around
the globe; over the last half a century, fizzy drinks, faded jeans and funky music from the US have taken the world by storm; now, there’s a rush across the globe of children learning Mandarin. Is it a co-incidence that in each of these eras, the UK and the US have been the world’s leading mercantile nations – a standing that is now being challenged by China? The spread of Indian culture and the rapid penetration of its soft power around the globe makes me confident that India is standing at the cusp a leadership role in global affairs. India and Great Britain have just kicked off the UK-India Year of Culture, at the launch of which Queen Elizabeth II welcomed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and a delegation of Indian celebrities such as Kapil Dev, Kamal Hassan and Anoushka Shankar, among others, at Buckingham Palace, the epicenter of the British establishment, with Indian food and an Indiathemed evening. The Queen’s royal band also performed to the tune of A.R. Rahman’s ‘Jai Ho’, from the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.Steamed rice and curry is Britain’s most popular soul food. Bollywood has already edged out Hollywood as the most popular form of entertainment in Africa and the Middle East. Tamil superstar Rajnikanth is reportedly the biggest movie icon in Japan. And Yoga has emerged one of as India’s greatest soft-power exports. Despite this massive groundswell of support from diaspora communities across the world, India has fallen woefully short in leveraging its soft
power. Before Modi rose to the office of Prime Minister, no Indian government ever considered integrating the influence of the Indian diaspora with the country’s foreign policy goal. Then, unlike the British Council, which is at the forefront of spreading British soft power all over the world, the Indian Centre for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has been used by successive governments as a cushy sinecure for a few favoured bureaucrats and individuals. For instance, many Indians complain that the Nehru Centre in the UK has become, under successive Congress regimes, a stodgy parking lot for authors, artistes and retired bureaucrats as a reward for favours done. This must change, and change fast, to be in sync with the new India and its aspirations. India has recently overtaken the UK as the world’s sixth largest economy, India and Japan are stepping up their economic and strategic partnerships, the Gulf monarchies are increasingly pursuing closer ties with New Delhi, and India is emerging as Africa’s favourite global partner. There’s so much the ICCR can do to push India’s interests – in the UK, the US, in Western Europe and the rest of the world. In fact, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, there is a huge opportunity to learn from and partner with organisations like the British Council that have wellheeled systems, and to properly align with India’s own geo-strategic and development goals. That would give India’s cultural diplomacy some real teeth. In a fast changing globe, where countries are jockeying intensely to secure for themselves leadership roles in the emerging new world order, India’s soft power could be the enticing thin end of the wedge for New Delhi.
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Despite demonetisation, India’s GDP growth stays 7% Despite the demonetisation of high-value banknotes in November and the resultant impact on output and well as consumption, the Indian economy clocked a fasterthan-expected growth of 7 per cent in fiscal third quarter. Data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that the rate of economic growth in the three months ending December slowed marginally from the 7.4 per cent in the preceding quarter. The Statistics office stuck to its last month’s projection that the economy will grow at 7.1 per cent in the year to March, in line with the advance estimate of GDP growth released in January. GDP growth was pegged at 7.9 per cent in the previous financial year. The numbers released show that growth decelerated to 7 per cent in October-December quarter even as sectoral data reflected minimal impact of demonetisation on account of a sharp rise in agricultural growth and a pickup in manufacturing sector growth. Nearly all research agencies had forecast that growth estimates for the economy would slide because of the slowdown in consumption due to demonetisation. The Economic Survey for 2016-17 had projected India’s GDP growth rate to reduce by 0.25-0.5 per cent in 2016-17 owing to cash squeeze in the economy following demonetisation. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its Sixth Bimonthly Monetary Policy Statement on February 8 had revised downwards GVA growth forecast for 2016-17 to 6.9 per cent from its December estimate of 7.1 per cent. Last week, National Council of Applied Economic Research cut its growth forecast to 6.9 per cent from its earlier estimate of 7.6 per cent.
Analysts noted that since the early estimates of quarterly estimate on gross value addition relied heavily on available data from the formal sector, which is expected to have weathered the note ban better than the informal sector, the first quarterly estimate issued on Tuesday may not fully capture the impact of the note ban. Subsequent estimates that draw from wider data sources, may well revise the quarterly growth downward, something that was partly corroborated by government officials. When asked whether the GDP growth numbers factored in the impact of demonetisation, Chief Statistician TCA Anant said, “I can only tell you what third quarter figures show. You may interpret them in whichever way you like…More numbers will come in future and we will update accordingly… am not here to attack or defend.” Anant said that policies like demonetisation are “difficult to assess without lot of data coming in.” The second advance estimates include advance corporate filings and data for full corporate filings will be available only by year-end, he added. When asked that companies in their results have declared a decline in consumption due to demonetisation, Anant said, “There are many items in consumption. Durable goods are only a part of it…other than that, there are other things in consumption like agricultural production and others, which have shown growth and that’s why overall consumption is showing a growth.” Commenting on the GDP data, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said this year growth figures are on a high base of last fiscal and numbers “do not show much negative impact of demonetisation”.
General Motors to stop production from Gujarat plant The General Motors (GM) which set up Gujarat's first car manufacturing facility at Halol near Vadodara is all set to shut it down sometime in April. The Indian subsidiary of US automobile giant had in July 2015 announced closure of the facility by mid2016. Later, the company decided to continue production till March 2017 to ensure an orderly transition for employees, suppliers and other stakeholders. “The plant will cease to function after the March 2017 deadline. The exact data for closure has not
been decided yet but it is unlikely to remain operational for more than two weeks or so after the deadline,” said sources. Top officials from the company recently held a meeting with senior government officials to discuss the exit modality after majority of 650-odd workers at the plant not accepting Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) offered in December, which promised 100 days of wages to the workers. “GM has decided to close their plant as per their business decision.
The state government has allowed the company to wind up its operation on the assurance that they would resolve all issues related to workers,” said JN Singh, chief secretary, Gujarat government.
“A month ago, we were offered voluntary separation scheme, which we (the workers) have opposed. As against Rs 3500,0004000,000 offered to supervisors, the workers have been promised just Rs 800,000-1000,000,” said a worker. The company, however, continues its negotiations to sell certain assets of the facility to Chinese automobile giant
SAIC Motor Corp. When contacted, the company stated that the discussions with SAIC on the sale of Halol are progressing well. The company continues to work with its employees on the implications of a sale and with the government to secure necessary approvals. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has also approved the acquisition of certain assets of GM's Halol plant by SAIC Motor HK, a part SAIC Motor Corp. Meanwhile, SAIC is also said to be in talks with state governments of
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat for a greenfield car plant. GM's exit has come at a time when Gujarat has emerged as an auto hub with the likes of Tata Motors, Ford India and Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI) already commissioning their manufacturing plants in Gujarat. Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) is soon going to operationalize its plant, while HeroMoto Corp's two-wheeler facility is under advance stage of development.