Ties with China of "Great Importance" to US: Antony
PIB Thursday, November 11, 2010 17:29 IST
The Defence Minister Shri AK Antony has said that India attaches great importance to its relations with China. Addressing a function here today after presenting the K. Subrahmanyam Award to Dr. Srikant Kondapalli, a noted scholar on Chinese Studies, Shri Antony hoped the award would encourage others to undertake intensive research on the rise of China as a superpower. Following is the text of the address delivered by Shri Antony on the occasion, to mark the 45th Foundation day of the Institute for defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA): -
“It is a real pleasure to be in your midst for the 45th Foundation Day of IDSA. I express my warm greetings to all of you on the occasion. Our gratitude is also due to Professor Kaushik Basu, a renowned economist, for delivering the Foundation Day address today. I hope that the ideas expressed in his address will generate greater interest among our scholars on various issues and also in using other disciplines in their research. His ideas are thought-provoking. They will be useful to all of us.
One problem plaguing our institutes, think-tanks and universities is that they often work within the narrow confines of their respective disciplines. Real life problems, as complex as security and its various dimensions require a multi-disciplinary approach. It calls for a thorough understanding of a wide array of disciplines like Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Geography, History, Psychology and Natural Sciences. The security challenges of today are far more complex than at any time in the past. These challenges are both - global and local and nearly always, interlinked. Mankind needs to grasp facts clearly and understand issues in the proper perspective to facilitate better and quicker policy making. In this context, Indian think-tanks will have to discharge an important responsibility by way of rigorous policy research to support more-informed policy making.
I also take this opportunity to heartily congratulate Dr. Srikant Kondapalli for winning this year’s K. Subrahmanyam Award. This is the fourth award in the series and its conferment recognizes Dr. Kondapalli’s outstanding work on China, especially, its Armed Forces. We attach great importance to our relations with China. I hope that this award will provide impetus to other researchers to go in for more intensive research work on China. I also wish to compliment the winners of this year’s President Awards for their noteworthy contributions in journals of repute. I wish to strongly urge the younger scholars of IDSA to draw inspiration from such researchers and excel in their fields of study.
I am told that for the third year in succession, IDSA has been ranked amongst Asia’s top ten and the world’s top fifty think-tanks. In fact, IDSA is the only think-tank from India to have been included in this list. That way it is a satisfactory thing. You should not be satisfied with the 10th rank. You must aim to become No. 1, if not No. 1, then No 2. Even at the recent Commonwealth Games, India stood at No 2. So, IDSA too should aim to become at least No. 2. Coupled with the rising popularity of the Institute’s Visiting Scholars’ Programme, this reflects its growing national and international stature.
Despite these satisfactory developments, we cannot afford to relax and be complacent. There is still a lot of hard work ahead for all of us, if we really want to fructify the vision of becoming a ‘centre of excellence’. As I have said on earlier occasions, IDSA has to intensify its efforts to make the Institute’s work more relevant and useful to the policy-makers. You must be able to foresee the future challenges the country faces. You must strive tirelessly to continuously improve the quality and quantity of research work. IDSA scholars particularly need to increasingly tap the primary sources and field visits to add quality to your work. Original sources alone will provide new insights that are in touch with the ground reality. Last but not the least, research must not remain confined to being published in journals. You must make your research work more transparent and accessible to our policy makers, parliamentarians, the media, and to the general people. IDSA scholars need to reach out to as wide cross-section of the society, as possible. The ideas and findings need to be communicated in a substantial measure.
Let me share some thoughts on the issues that in my view the Institute needs to focus on. You must utilize the available human resources to turn the focus on key areas for deeper research, rather than scattering them on a large number of issues. You must focus only on key issues.
Among other things, your research work must factor in the rapidly changing geopolitical equations, geo-strategic developments and their implications for India’s security. You must pay special, critical attention to the developments in our immediate neighbourhood and beyond.
Today, the security scenario is constantly evolving due to the changing nature of conflicts. You must focus your energy on the strategy and force structures needed to face these unconventional threats and asymmetric conflicts. There are other issues that merit attention like defence reforms focusing on jointness, acquisition, offsets, development of India’s defence industrial base, terrorism, climate change and energy security. The challenge lies in producing original, high quality research studies with in a form that is useful for the policy makers.
Before I conclude, I wish to strongly emphasise the urgent need for high quality, analytical research work capable of anticipating threats, arriving at better-informed policy decisions and for defending India’s vital security interests.
Five years from now, IDSA will be celebrating the 50th Foundation Day. You must set your sights on becoming not only the best in Asia, but also in the world by 2015. I assure you my full support to your endeavours and hope that you will take IDSA to even greater heights." PK/SK
Ties with China of "Great Importance" to US: Antony
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
Showing posts with label Global Challenges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Global Challenges. Show all posts
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Poverty in India is breeding Maoists and Naxals
782 million Indians Will be Living On Under $2 a Day by 2015
Lalit K Jha/ Washington | Apr 23, 2010
A whopping 782 million Indians will be living on less than two dollars (Rs 100) a day by 2015, a joint report by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund said here today.
The report titled 'Global monitoring report 2010: The MDGs after the crisis, however said the number of poor Indians living on less than two dollars would moderately decline to 686 million by 2020. But the report adds that by the turn of the next decade as many as 268 million Indians would be living on less than 1.25 dollars a day, while in 2015 the figure would be 295 million.
These figures, however, are almost double the revised number of the poor in the country which is pegged at around 400 million.
The report says China reduced its poverty rate from 60 per cent to 16 per cent, as the absolute number of extremely poor fell from 683 million to 208 million between 1990 and 2005.
On the other hand, "India reduced the share of its population living in poverty from 51 per cent to 42 per cent, but because of population growth, the number of poor people actually rose from 436 million to 456 million (between 1990 and 2005)," it said.
782 mn Indians Will be Living On Under $2 a Day by '15
Comment
One can define poverty as lack of marketable skills. There are so many jobs that require very low skills. But you still do not get people to do them. Even the beggars seem to make a cool return on their skills of 'acting'. Where have you seen really poor people? North India perhaps has more of the exploited than the South. But I think, as the Maoist/ Naxal movement shows, they are rising against poverty. One wonders if Maoists are fighting against poverty or for power. One expects the recent polarization of the world to be against exploitation. One perceives India will see a lot of blood shed in coming years. One wishes it is untrue or otherwise?
Lalit K Jha/ Washington | Apr 23, 2010
A whopping 782 million Indians will be living on less than two dollars (Rs 100) a day by 2015, a joint report by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund said here today.
The report titled 'Global monitoring report 2010: The MDGs after the crisis, however said the number of poor Indians living on less than two dollars would moderately decline to 686 million by 2020. But the report adds that by the turn of the next decade as many as 268 million Indians would be living on less than 1.25 dollars a day, while in 2015 the figure would be 295 million.
These figures, however, are almost double the revised number of the poor in the country which is pegged at around 400 million.
The report says China reduced its poverty rate from 60 per cent to 16 per cent, as the absolute number of extremely poor fell from 683 million to 208 million between 1990 and 2005.
On the other hand, "India reduced the share of its population living in poverty from 51 per cent to 42 per cent, but because of population growth, the number of poor people actually rose from 436 million to 456 million (between 1990 and 2005)," it said.
782 mn Indians Will be Living On Under $2 a Day by '15
Comment
One can define poverty as lack of marketable skills. There are so many jobs that require very low skills. But you still do not get people to do them. Even the beggars seem to make a cool return on their skills of 'acting'. Where have you seen really poor people? North India perhaps has more of the exploited than the South. But I think, as the Maoist/ Naxal movement shows, they are rising against poverty. One wonders if Maoists are fighting against poverty or for power. One expects the recent polarization of the world to be against exploitation. One perceives India will see a lot of blood shed in coming years. One wishes it is untrue or otherwise?
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
How Indian Entrepreneurs have circumnavigated Government hurdles to IT Development
The innovation revolution livemint.com The Wall Street Journal
Emerging India has evolved from the world’s back office into a knowledge and innovation hub. In the next decade, expect benefits for not just the nation but the global economy by Vivek Wadhwa
The ability of Indian entrepreneurs to rise above all the hurdles the government and society throw at them. Just as India’s companies install their own power generators to deal with supply problems and purification plants to provide clean water, they have built their own surrogate education system. And herein lies India’s greatest innovation: Its companies have developed the ability to take the output of a weak education system and turn these workers into R&D specialists who can compete in the global arena.
Faced with severe talent shortages, escalating salaries and a lagging education system, Indian industry had to rethink the way it recruited, trained, developed and retained its workforce. It started by adapting the best practices of companies that were outsourcing R&D to India. Then, leading companies in diverse industries started improving on these techniques and methods; refining and integrating them into a unified system.
With the economic slowdown, Indian talent supply has been able to catch up with demand. And Western companies are more desperate than ever to cut costs.
To achieve the 30-40% cost savings that Indian outsourcers can offer, they are now outsourcing their most strategic internal systems. Additionally, thanks to a combination of the recession in the US and that country’s flawed immigration policies, there is a flood of highly educated and skilled talent returning home to India.
They see more opportunity in India than abroad, and want to be near family and friends. They are returning with the latest skills and an understanding of foreign markets.
So the stars are lining up for Indian outsourcing, and this industry is gaining a second wind.
Within a decade, India is likely to become the world’s second-largest R&D centre after the US. Its innovations will likely benefit not only India, but also the world.
Vivek Wadhwa is executive in residence/adjunct professor at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University and a senior research associate with the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School.
Read the full article on how Government hurdles have been bypassed:
The innovation revolution
Emerging India has evolved from the world’s back office into a knowledge and innovation hub. In the next decade, expect benefits for not just the nation but the global economy by Vivek Wadhwa
The ability of Indian entrepreneurs to rise above all the hurdles the government and society throw at them. Just as India’s companies install their own power generators to deal with supply problems and purification plants to provide clean water, they have built their own surrogate education system. And herein lies India’s greatest innovation: Its companies have developed the ability to take the output of a weak education system and turn these workers into R&D specialists who can compete in the global arena.
Faced with severe talent shortages, escalating salaries and a lagging education system, Indian industry had to rethink the way it recruited, trained, developed and retained its workforce. It started by adapting the best practices of companies that were outsourcing R&D to India. Then, leading companies in diverse industries started improving on these techniques and methods; refining and integrating them into a unified system.
With the economic slowdown, Indian talent supply has been able to catch up with demand. And Western companies are more desperate than ever to cut costs.
To achieve the 30-40% cost savings that Indian outsourcers can offer, they are now outsourcing their most strategic internal systems. Additionally, thanks to a combination of the recession in the US and that country’s flawed immigration policies, there is a flood of highly educated and skilled talent returning home to India.
They see more opportunity in India than abroad, and want to be near family and friends. They are returning with the latest skills and an understanding of foreign markets.
So the stars are lining up for Indian outsourcing, and this industry is gaining a second wind.
Within a decade, India is likely to become the world’s second-largest R&D centre after the US. Its innovations will likely benefit not only India, but also the world.
Vivek Wadhwa is executive in residence/adjunct professor at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University and a senior research associate with the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School.
Read the full article on how Government hurdles have been bypassed:
The innovation revolution
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Prime Minister Congratulates Newly Elected British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron
Photo courtesy The HINDU: click here
NEW MISSION: Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks outside No.10 Downing Street, in London, on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has congratulated Mr. David Cameron, the newly elected Prime Minister of United Kingdom. In a letter to Mr. Cameron, the Prime Minster extended his warm wishes and hoped the two countries will further strengthen the bonds of friendship. Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s letter:
“Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
Please accept my heartiest felicitations and congratulations on your assumption of the office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The elections in the United Kingdom and your stewardship of the Conservative Party reflect the best traditions of parliamentary democracy. I wish you the very best in your leadership of the United Kingdom in the years ahead.
I recall with great pleasure our meeting in New Delhi in September 2006. Over the years, our bilateral relations have diversified into a vibrant and multi-faceted strategic partnership encompassing almost all areas of human endeavour.
We are today well-placed to build upon this strong edifice not just for the welfare and benefit of our two peoples, but also to work together to address the pressing global challenges that we face today, and to harness the growing inter-dependence among nations for the good of humankind. I look forward to working with you to further advance and strengthen our bonds of friendship, to which India attaches the highest importance.
It gives me great pleasure to extend a most cordial invitation to you to visit India at your convenience.” *** AKT/SH/SKS
Prime Minister Congratulates Newly Elected British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron
Read the motivating acceptance speech
British Prime Minister David Cameron's acceptance speech
NEW MISSION: Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron speaks outside No.10 Downing Street, in London, on Tuesday. The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has congratulated Mr. David Cameron, the newly elected Prime Minister of United Kingdom. In a letter to Mr. Cameron, the Prime Minster extended his warm wishes and hoped the two countries will further strengthen the bonds of friendship. Following is the text of the Prime Minister’s letter:
“Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
Please accept my heartiest felicitations and congratulations on your assumption of the office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The elections in the United Kingdom and your stewardship of the Conservative Party reflect the best traditions of parliamentary democracy. I wish you the very best in your leadership of the United Kingdom in the years ahead.
I recall with great pleasure our meeting in New Delhi in September 2006. Over the years, our bilateral relations have diversified into a vibrant and multi-faceted strategic partnership encompassing almost all areas of human endeavour.
We are today well-placed to build upon this strong edifice not just for the welfare and benefit of our two peoples, but also to work together to address the pressing global challenges that we face today, and to harness the growing inter-dependence among nations for the good of humankind. I look forward to working with you to further advance and strengthen our bonds of friendship, to which India attaches the highest importance.
It gives me great pleasure to extend a most cordial invitation to you to visit India at your convenience.” *** AKT/SH/SKS
Prime Minister Congratulates Newly Elected British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron
Read the motivating acceptance speech
British Prime Minister David Cameron's acceptance speech
Sunday, March 29, 2009
PM urges India Inc to be sensitive in turbulent times
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday asked India's top industrialists to be sensitive to the adverse impact of the current economic crisis on the weaker sections of the society and sought their help in meeting the challenges.
"I have great faith and confidence in India's entrepreneurs and particularly in the wisdom and experiences of captains of industry assembled here today to meet the challenges confronting our economy," he told a meeting with them at his official residence here.
"We need to be particularly sensitive to the impact of slowdown on the weakest in the organised as well as unorganised sectors. We must meet the challenge of job losses caused by the slowdown," the prime minister added.
Manmohan Singh had invited some 25 leading industrialists to hear their views on some of the key issues concerning the domestic and global economy and to help frame India's position ahead of his participation at the G20 summit in London April 2, 2009.
PM urges India Inc to be sensitive in turbulent times
Freedom means little to hungry stomachs:
A heartrending true story of young boy and poverty
Monday, November 17, 2008
Fiscal stimulus is in place: Manmohan
N Ram of The Hindu
“Balance of power shifting in favour of emerging economies”
Photo: Debatosh Sengupta/Photo Division
BACK FROM THE SUMMIT: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohon Singh addresses journalists on his way back to Delhi on Sunday after attending the G-20 Summit in Washington.
On board Air India One: The Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy offered Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an unusual opportunity to differentiate himself from virtually all the other heads of government of the Group of Twenty who came to Washington at the invitation of lame-duck President George W. Bush.
The nature and context of the meeting enabled Dr. Singh the economist to reach for his professional toolkit, hone his analysis of the origins and nature of the global economic crisis that is deepening by the day, and reveal his thinking on what needed to be done to tackle it. As if reliving his student days at Oxbridge, he even approvingly quoted John Maynard Keynes on speculators being harmless “as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise” but what happens when “enterprise becomes a bubble on the whirlpool of speculation” and the capital development of a country becomes “the by-product of the activities of a casino.”
Perhaps with the exception of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, no G-20 leader could speak with the kind of technical expertise that India’s Prime Minister brought to the summit. Certainly Mr. Bush, whom Dr. Singh greatly admires and feels personally close to, did not reveal, in his summing up of the outcome, any expertise either in his diagnosis of the financial crisis or in his review of summit prescriptions.
India’s foreign policy over the past decade as well its rise as an economic power might have distanced it from the so-called third world, and especially from the least developed countries. Nevertheless, the composition of the summit group — in which the developing world is inadequately represented and the least developed countries are completely absent — made Dr. Singh, along with Chinese President Hu Jintao, take on the role of spokesperson for developing countries as a distinct and aggrieved (‘we did not cause the crisis but we are the worst affected’) category.
These aspects became clear from the Prime Minister’s onboard press conference during the Washington-Frankfurt sector of AI-1’s flight back to Delhi, and also from a short text summing up the Prime Minister’s intervention in the summit.
“There is one important significance of the summit,” Dr. Singh told Indian journalists with uncharacteristic forthcomingness. “It is a clear indication that the balance of power is increasingly shifting in favour of the emerging economies. We were, for the last couple of years, being invited to the G8 meetings but consultations were merely for the sake of form. Our views were not really taken into account while they were formulating their viewpoints. For the first time, there was a genuine dialogue between major developed countries and major emerging countries.”
But this was not all. In his onboard press conference, Dr. Singh let on that he had actually anticipated the current economic difficulties. “I don’t take credit but I think Finance Minister Chidambaram and I had anticipated that there was likely to be a global slowdown this year. Therefore, in preparing for the budget for the current year — it appeared that we had taken excessive risk with regard to the budget deficit — we budgeted for a very substantial amount of deficit precisely to take care of the slack that might emerge … So far as India is concerned, the fiscal stimulus is, by and large, already in place.”
In his intervention, Dr. Singh, after providing his analysis of the origins and nature of what is now being described as the greatest financial and economic crisis after the Great Depression of the 1930s, identified “seven big messages emerging from our summit.”
We anticipated global slowdown, our fiscal stimulus is in place: Manmohan
Dr Manmohan Singh the world's leading economist has truly paved India's path towards a developed nation during his tenure as Prime Minister. All are proud of his achievements. One must remember he is not a politician but a technocrat and a true patriot.
“Balance of power shifting in favour of emerging economies”
BACK FROM THE SUMMIT: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohon Singh addresses journalists on his way back to Delhi on Sunday after attending the G-20 Summit in Washington.On board Air India One: The Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy offered Prime Minister Manmohan Singh an unusual opportunity to differentiate himself from virtually all the other heads of government of the Group of Twenty who came to Washington at the invitation of lame-duck President George W. Bush.
The nature and context of the meeting enabled Dr. Singh the economist to reach for his professional toolkit, hone his analysis of the origins and nature of the global economic crisis that is deepening by the day, and reveal his thinking on what needed to be done to tackle it. As if reliving his student days at Oxbridge, he even approvingly quoted John Maynard Keynes on speculators being harmless “as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise” but what happens when “enterprise becomes a bubble on the whirlpool of speculation” and the capital development of a country becomes “the by-product of the activities of a casino.”
Perhaps with the exception of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, no G-20 leader could speak with the kind of technical expertise that India’s Prime Minister brought to the summit. Certainly Mr. Bush, whom Dr. Singh greatly admires and feels personally close to, did not reveal, in his summing up of the outcome, any expertise either in his diagnosis of the financial crisis or in his review of summit prescriptions.
India’s foreign policy over the past decade as well its rise as an economic power might have distanced it from the so-called third world, and especially from the least developed countries. Nevertheless, the composition of the summit group — in which the developing world is inadequately represented and the least developed countries are completely absent — made Dr. Singh, along with Chinese President Hu Jintao, take on the role of spokesperson for developing countries as a distinct and aggrieved (‘we did not cause the crisis but we are the worst affected’) category.
These aspects became clear from the Prime Minister’s onboard press conference during the Washington-Frankfurt sector of AI-1’s flight back to Delhi, and also from a short text summing up the Prime Minister’s intervention in the summit.
“There is one important significance of the summit,” Dr. Singh told Indian journalists with uncharacteristic forthcomingness. “It is a clear indication that the balance of power is increasingly shifting in favour of the emerging economies. We were, for the last couple of years, being invited to the G8 meetings but consultations were merely for the sake of form. Our views were not really taken into account while they were formulating their viewpoints. For the first time, there was a genuine dialogue between major developed countries and major emerging countries.”
But this was not all. In his onboard press conference, Dr. Singh let on that he had actually anticipated the current economic difficulties. “I don’t take credit but I think Finance Minister Chidambaram and I had anticipated that there was likely to be a global slowdown this year. Therefore, in preparing for the budget for the current year — it appeared that we had taken excessive risk with regard to the budget deficit — we budgeted for a very substantial amount of deficit precisely to take care of the slack that might emerge … So far as India is concerned, the fiscal stimulus is, by and large, already in place.”
In his intervention, Dr. Singh, after providing his analysis of the origins and nature of what is now being described as the greatest financial and economic crisis after the Great Depression of the 1930s, identified “seven big messages emerging from our summit.”
We anticipated global slowdown, our fiscal stimulus is in place: Manmohan
Dr Manmohan Singh the world's leading economist has truly paved India's path towards a developed nation during his tenure as Prime Minister. All are proud of his achievements. One must remember he is not a politician but a technocrat and a true patriot.
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