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MEDIA WATCH
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Asian Voice | 27th February 2016
It started off as ‘Made in India,’ something to celebrate in its elevation as an international brand, instead the mindless ruckus in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University held centre stage for all the wrong reasons. TV channels tackle the subject much like a rugby player does an opponent. The ensuing scrum sums up what passes for considered debate; it was the same brawl night after boring night, generating heat in abundance with barely a ray of light to the lighten the encircling gloom. The incontrovertible facts are that a section of the JNU’s students union and its president held as meeting to protest the alleged miscarriage of justice to Afzal Guru , who having been tried in a court of law for his crimes of terrorism, leading to the deaths of innocent victims, received the death sentence.
on the icy desolation of the Siachen Glacier, fresh in the public mind, it was surely the height of folly for the JNU students to embark of their ill-conceived venture.
US F-16s for Pakistan
News that the Obama Administration has sanctioned an aid package that includes the supply of the latest F-16 warplanes equipped with state-ofthe-art weapon systems on the somewhat specious plea that this was necessary for Islamabad’s war on jihadi terrorism is black humour stretched to breaking point. The right F-16s will cost some $750 million. You can bet much of this will be written off in time.
Indian protest
The Government of India has lodged a stiff protest – which it has been doing for decades with no discernible response beyond the accustomed pieties that the US seeks stability in south Asia and is committed to the IndiaPakistan peace process. This
Disorder in Delhi over JNU meeting
Anti-national conundrum
BJP-RSS activists, bit between their teeth, tarred the organizer and participants as ‘anti-national,’ hence guilty of a heinous crime. ‘Anti-national’ can be an objective reality, or it is a subjective charge. In hindsight some might argue that Prime Minister Modi’s impulsive decision to drop by at Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s residence in Lahore for a family bash, taken in the context of the subsequent terror attack on the Pathakot Air Force base, could be interpreted as an ‘anti-national’ act. A BJP culture Czar in Madhya Pradesh wished to impose a ban on a book entitled Nationalism because he believed it to be ‘anti-national’ and pro- Pakistan. The author, it turned out, was Rabindranath Tagore!
Acting in haste, repenting at leisure
Imprisoning the JNU Union president was much like using a hammer to crack a nut, in this instance, make him a martyr. One thinks of Jawaharlal Nehru faced by certain Tamil leaders’ cries of for secession of Tamil Nadu from the Indian Union. He dismissed the call as an aberration which, in the fullness of time, it turned out to be. The BJP regime’s lapse of judgment opened a Pandora box of condemnable violence and disorder, culminating with lawyers, who are trained to uphold, thrashing journalists in full public view, and breaking the law. The sight of a coalition of Communist and Congress leaders shedding crocodile tears for the violation of free speech was supremely ironical, considering their solemn silence at the attack on Jaipur Literary Festival, not so long ago, mounted by the Islamic clergy from
Deoband, objecting to the presence of authors whom they considered apostates. Such double standards, alas, have become the norm in Indian public. Mindless populism for temporary glory is India’s curse.
Magnanimity in politics may be the truest wisdom; and a great nation and little minds may go ill together, but such exalted sentiments can only be fulfilled in an appropriate setting. Pakistan, in retrospect, has been a jihadi state in an undeclared state of war from its inception in August 1947 in pursuit of an Islamic Subcontinent. Zukfikar Ali Bhutto called ringingly for a 1,000- year jihad against India; and the Pakistan military and intelligence have openly expressed a wish to destroy by a thousand cuts. If only the Indian political class would read a little more and a talk a great deal less on television and cease pontificating on an imaginary peace process arising from increased India-Pakistan cricketing encounters, the truth would surely become self-evident. Reading and digesting the American academic Christine Fair’s meticulously researched book, ‘Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War,’ could be a troubling experience for the lotus-eaters who continue to rule, India that is Bharat.
Height of folly
With the former Pakistani military dictator Pervaiz Musharraf boasting brazenly on Indian television of his own and his country’s culpability in terrorist depredations in India, with the recent jihadi assaults on Gurdaspur and Pathankot and the deaths of 10 Indian soldiers
Mini BrahMos underway BrahMos, an India-Russian joint venture, is the world’s sole supersonic mach 2.8 cruise missile with a range of 300 kilometres. It is already in service with the Indian Army and surface ships of the Indian Navy. Its weight has precluded its use, thus far, by the Indian Air Force and the Navy’s submarine fleet, hence work is underway to develop lighter mini BrahMos missiles that can be produced at a faster rate and in greater numbers to meet India’s present requirements. A Russian engineer told one of his country’s reporters that the ‘Make in India’ project may have appeared now, but ‘if we talk about our project , the slogan started to be realized more than 15 years ago.’ (Russia India Report, Moscow)
Defence sector bags highest investments
Amitabh Kant Secretary to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is the brains behind the government’s Start-up India Initiative, spoke to the media on the need for innovation, embracing new technologies and ease of doing business in India. ‘Of all the 14 sectors, defence has bagged the highest amount of investments, followed by railways and consumer goods,’ he said (Business Line February 16)
Huge boost to electronics
Sponsoring terror
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar
surely is the longest running horseplay in living memory. Better to take stock and act accordingly in the national interest rather than plead one’s cause from prayer mats to America’s living deities, deaf, dumb and blind. More notice may be taken in Washington at Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s strictures, since fewer lucrative defence contracts may come the way of US companies. (Times of India, Hindu February 14, 19)
Fifth Generation warplane back on track
It helps greatly when a defence minister happens to be an IIT alumnus. Manohar Parrikar with his sound grasp of technology and engineering has unblocked negotiations with Russia on the joint venture for the manufacture of the Multirole Fifth Generation aircraft which, when it takes to the skies, promises to be the most lethal around. ‘The qualitative requirements for the fighter have been drawn up by the Air Force and those will be met with a collaborative development approach. The [Defence] Ministry is keen to carry forward the project and not just buy some fighters off the shelf as was suggested by certain quarters.’ said a senior Indian official (Economic Times February 11)
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India’s electronics received a huge boost with the launch of a Rs 10,000 crore development fund targeted cspecifically at the semi-conductor industry. It will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in electronics, nano-electronics and information technology. IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said this was ‘one of a number of dream projects and the government will do everything to project the intellectual property of the start-ups that use this fund.’ (Business Line February 17)
Samsung bets on India
The Indian market with its unique challenges is the spur to Samsung Electronics to forge ahead with innovation and create new products in the country and in foreign markets as well. Convertible refrigerators, washing machines were some of the
PM Modi awarding Time magazine awards to Indian company CEOs. see comment page 3
South Korean company’s products at an Asian Forum in Singapore. ‘The research and development teams are developing products for the entire Samsung world,’ said CEO H.C.Hong. His company’s motto is ‘Make for India,’ he says (Business Line February 11)
India crucial for IBM: CEO
International Business Machines ((IBM) Chairman, President and CEO, Ginni Rometty, said that ‘India will play a really important role in cognitive. ‘Our India research labs are already working on natural language processing, machine learning and have actually done a lot of work in cognitive systems in finance tech support….As the world embraces digital, it will also embrace cognitive. We will be able to solve problems which humanity has never solved,’ she concluded. (Mint February 5)
More research centres on innovation: Tata
Speaking on a Maharashtra Investment Forum discussion with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and others, Tata Chairman Emeritus, Ratan Tata, called for more research centres on innovation. He has devoted himself to start-ups, having himself invested heavily in them. He said ‘Maharashtra offers all the benefits of Silicon Valley and has the potential to become the startup hub of the world, where people can come to start their ventures instantly.’ (Business Line February 16).
Bachchan of biz Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, flanked by Sun Pharma MD Dilip Shanghvi (left) and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, at a panel discussion at the Make in India event, in Mumbai