Posts Tagged ‘India’
March 24, 2012
Rafale de l'Escadron de Chasse 1/7 Provence: Wikipedia
It is not unexpected or unusual in the award of large Indian contracts that the “losing” bidder cries “foul” and claims that the evaluation process was manipulated. From my own experience in the Power industry it is “standard practice” for a losing bidder to enlist the aid of the media, politicians and the courts in crying foul and in trying to get an award to a competitor overturned. Again, from my own experience, such tactics can often delay awards but rarely succeed. Such “spoiling” can cause much rancour with the client and – more often than not – is counter-productive. In marketing and sales for large projects in India, “spoiling” a competitor’s award is rather easy but only delays matters and is not really worthwhile. The real sales skill lies in getting to be the lowest bidder and then beating off the “spoilers”.
Dassault’s Rafale was announced as being the lowest bidder beating the Eurofighter for the $20billion Indian MMRCA contract at the end of January. Now comes the cry of “possible foul” from a Member of the Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) who is also a member of Parliament’s standing Defence Committee. (The MP, MV Mysura Reddy, is a former member of the Congress Party who left to join the regional Telegu Desam party. He has lost 3 elections for Parliament but has been appointed by his party to the Upper House).
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Tags:Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter, Eurofighter versus Rafale, India, Indian Air Force, MMRCA, MV Mysura Reddy
Posted in Aviation, Defense, India | Comments Off on Eurofighter tries to spoil the Indian MMRCA Rafale deal
March 23, 2012
There has been a debate going on in Sweden over the last few days as to whether surrogate motherhood should be permitted. In following the various views I cannot help feeling that a fundamental ethical consideration is being avoided – perhaps intentionally. The Swedish Parliament’s Social Affairs Committee voted by a large – and very politically correct – majority to carry out an investigation into whether Swedish surrogacy laws should be changed.
The Local: Sweden took a step toward a possible lifting of its ban on surrogate motherhood on Tuesday, despite impassioned opposition from political parties on both the left and right.
The Riksdag’s Committee on Social Affairs voted by a wide majority on Tuesday to authorize the government to carry out an inquiry into surrogate motherhood.
Currently, surrogate motherhood is outlawed in Sweden.
However, the Christian Democrats and the Left Party both opposed the measure.
“The issue of childlessness shouldn’t be solved by having women’s bodies used to carry and give birth to children for other people. Women’s bodies aren’t a commodity,” the Left Party’s Eva Olofsson told the TT news agency.
Even if surrogate motherhood is allowed on a non-commercial basis, there is nevertheless a risk for a black market trade in surrogate births, argued Olofsson.
She said that legalizing surrogate motherhood would send a signal that would increase acceptance of the practice that would open the door to trade with surrogate mothers in other countries, citing India as an example.
“It’s possible that we need more regulations that would make it so that it’s not allowed in Sweden to buy a child that has been born this way in India. But that’s not how the proposal looks,” said Olofsson.
With all new medical procedures I think the fundamental ethical requirement is the informed consent of all those involved. And for surrogacy that includes the child-to-be. But much of the debate about surrogacy laws in Sweden has been focused on the “rights” of women or the gay community to have children (or not). There is more concern for the “convenience” of these groups rather than for the welfare of the would-be child. Of course the “informed consent” of the would-be child is not available. But it should not be beyond the wit of man to consider the views the child would have – if it could. (more…)
Tags:Convenience of the parent, ethics of convenience, India, LGBT parenting, Surrogacy, Sweden
Posted in Behaviour, Ethics, India, Medicine, Sweden | Comments Off on Surrogate motherhood: The ethics of convenience
March 15, 2012
It was high time and even though they have tried before, the new measures just announced by the Chinese Education Ministry will hopefully begin to curb the widespread plagiarism, data manipulation and even data fakery that allegedly goes on.
India needs to institutionalise something similar. The Society of Scientific Values in India is an independent body and tries valiantly to act as a watch-dog but it has no teeth and no official standing. Of course in India the danger with creating institutions under a Ministry – and therefore under a Minister – is that the institution will very quickly become politicised. And Indian politicians are perhaps not the best choice when it comes to monitoring and establishing ethical standards. Nevertheless a start has to be made and the Ministry of Science and Technology in India is the natural home of an institution to promote ethical standards in scientific research and at institutes of higher education. The key will be to provide the backing of the Ministry to give it sufficient weight but to maintain its independence from party political influences. Giving such an institution semi-judicial status is one way but could be very heavy handed.
China Daily reports:
China’s Ministry of Education on Wednesday issued new rules to supervise universities’ scientific research and academic activities in order to “effectively prevent and curb academic misconduct.”
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Tags:China, China Education Ministry, ethics, India, Scientific misconduct, Society for Scientific Values
Posted in Academic misconduct, China, Ethics, India, Science, scientific misconduct, Technology | Comments Off on Chinese Government tries to get to grips with science misconduct. When will India follow?
March 14, 2012
The Indian 2011 Census has some fascinating – and sometimes surprising – information on the trends and manner in which development is taking place. In 2011 the population had reached 1,201 million people. Population growth rate continues to decline with the sharpest decline during 2001-2011. The percentage increase during the decade 2001-2011 was the lowest since Indian Independence in 1947. The urban-rural divide is still very strong. Mobile phone connectivity is penetrating the rural heartland faster than toilets. While almost half of all rural households had access to mobile phones less than 1% had access to the internet. Radio is not going anywhere fast but TV continues to penetrate. The joint family system with multiple couples in a household is giving way to nuclear families. Two-thirds of all households now have access to electricity but two-thirds still use “smoky fuels” ( firewood, crop residue, cow dung cakes or coal) for cooking. But only a third of all households (and less than 20% of rural households) have access to treated drinking water. The bicycle is still the primary mode of travel.
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Tags:Census 2011, India
Posted in Demographics, India | Comments Off on Indian Census: Access to electricity progresses but toilets lag mobile phones
March 9, 2012
Two articles appear in The Hindu today.
Rahul Siddharthan has an opinion piece about the CNR Rao and SB Krupanidhi plagiarism case and brings out the issues involved and the responsibility of senior scientists. Their responsibility in determining and establishing the atmosphere in which research is carried out is obvious. But what is more disturbing is a news article where Professor Krupanidhi is quoted extensively. He continues to trivialise the acts of plagiarism and refuses to take any responsibility for the papers published under his supervision.
No science in ‘cut and paste’
More instances of plagiarism come to light
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Tags:CNR Rao, cut and paste, cut and paste science, India, Indian Institute of Science, Krupanidhi, Plagiarism
Posted in Academic misconduct, Ethics, India, Science, scientific misconduct | 1 Comment »
February 22, 2012
The apparent over-representation of scientists of Indian origin in cases of scientific misconduct ought to be exercising the minds of the Indian scientific community – both in India and abroad. But any efforts to stamp out plagiarism in India – and many are trying – are completely undermined when eminent scientists from the most prestigious Indian institutions start trivialising or making excuses for plagiarism.
S. B. Krupanidhi
The Prime Minister’s Science Advisor Professor CNR Rao has admitted and apologised for his plagiarism but has gotten away without the paper written under his supervision being retracted. The apology should have been accompanied by highly-visible measures to stamp out the increasing incidence of “cut-and-paste” artists posing as scientists. Instead the nonchalant attitude of a co-author, SB Krupanidhi (Professor and Chairman, Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science) gives me little confidence that there is much value being given to the integrity of scientific research. He blames the student he was supposed to be supervising but will take no action as the Indian Institute of Science tries to brush everything under the carpet. “People make mistakes. There will be no action taken against the student, ” he said.
TOI reports:
India’s top scientist and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s adviser CNR Rao had to apologise to a leading scientific journal for reproducing text of other scientists in his research paper.
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Tags:academic misconduct, India, Indian Institute of Science, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Krupanidhi, Plagiarism, Rao, Scientific misconduct
Posted in Academic misconduct, India, Science, scientific misconduct | 3 Comments »
February 13, 2012
Dassault’s success in being selected as the lowest bidder for the Indian MMRCA competition with the Rafale aircraft seems to be having a significant impact in other deals. The Rafale is now the most likely winner of the Brazilian contract for 36 aircraft. The
aggressive pricing by Dassault and the active (and very effective) lobbying by the French government is a potent combination. The Rafale has not yet been sold outside France and the Indian and Brazilian deals are critical for the future export life of the Rafale.
In Brazil the Rafale is competing against Boeing’s F-18 and Saab’s Gripen. Though Saab is also desperately looking for export orders for the Gripen, it is unlikely that it can afford to drop its prices by the levels that Dassault obviously can. Boeing on the other hand is not so dependent on the Brazilian orders and is unlikely to drop its price by very much – especially since they will not wish to disturb the already very high price levels they enjoy for exports to the Middle-East. And that probably leaves the Rafale sitting very pretty.
Svenska Dagbladet reports (freely translated):
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Tags:Boeing, Brazil, Dassault Rafale, India, MMRCA, Rafale, SAAB, Saab Gripen
Posted in Aviation, Brazil, Business, Defense, India | Comments Off on Following Indian MMRCA success, Dassaut’s Rafale also tipped for Brazil
February 10, 2012
Though David Cameron and the other leaders of the four country consortium which manufactures the Eurofighter Typhoon (UK, Germany, Spain and Italy) have all been somewhat whiny about the selection of the French (Dassault) Rafale for the 126 aircraft Indian MMRCA deal it seems highly unlikely that the Typhoon can make a comeback.
The life-time cost of the contract is evaluated at about $20 billion with an initial contract value of about $10-12 billion. The ToI reports that the Rafale deal was evaluated as being $5 billion (about 25%) cheaper than the Eurofighter. Though the evaluation probably considers a total of about 189 aircraft (126 +63 in phase 2) it still represents a life-cycle cost difference of some $26 million per aircraft and not just the $4-5 million lower initial acquisition cost per aircraft (bid-price). It seems almost impossible for the Eurofighter to match this difference. The first 18 aircraft have to be delivered in “fly-away” condition from mid-2015 onwards. The next 108 aircraft will have to be delivered from HAL in India at about 6 per year initially going up to 20 per year.
Exclusive negotiations between Dassault and the Indian Ministry of Defence start next week.
Times of India:
It was the “substantially higher cost” of acquiring and operating the Eurofighter Typhoon that led to its ejection from the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to supply 126 fighters to IAF.
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Tags:Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, India, MMRCA competition, Rafale, Typhoon
Posted in Aviation, Defense, India | 1 Comment »
January 31, 2012
Finally the winner of the Indian MMRCA competition has been announced (or at least the L1 bidder) and it seems that the French dumped their prices for the Rafale to beat the Eurofighter by $4-5 million per aircraft. The performance of the Rafale in the Libyan adventure was also to its benefit compared to the Eurofighter Typhoon. Normally in the procurement process, the L1 bidder is called for final discussions to settle the contract and some further price negotiations can be expected. The contract will not be settled till the next fiscal year (after April 2012) and it would be very unusual for the evaluated L1 bidder not to get the contract. This contract is particularly important for Dassault since not only did the Rafale need a boost but also because they are guaranteed a market with the Indian Air Force for at least the next 15 years.
Economic Times:
French company Dassault Rafale on Tuesday bagged India’s biggest-ever contract for supplying 126 combat aircraft for the air force, edging out European competitor EADS in the multi-billion dollar deal.
The French firm was declared as the lowest bidder, according to which it will get the contract under India’s defence procurement procedure, sources said. “The French firm Dassault Rafale has emerged as the L-1 (lowest bidder) and cheaper than its european rival EADS (maker of Eurofighter) in the tender and will be offered to supply the aircraft to the IAF,” the source said.
They said the representatives of Dassault here were informed about the development in the morning and further negotiations on price will be held with them in the next 10-15 days.
The contract will be signed only in the next fiscal. According to the Request for Proposal (RFP), the winner of the contract will have to supply 18 of the 126 aircraft to the IAF in 36 months from its facilities and the remaining would be produced at HAL facilities in Bangalore.
Six companies including American F-16 and F-18, Russian MiG 35, Swedish Saab Gripen alongwith Eurofighter and Dassault Rafale were in the race in the beginning. But in April last year, the Defence Ministry shortlisted Dassault and EADS, evicting the American, Russian and Swedish bids.
The process was started with the issuing of a global tender in 2007 after which all the six contenders were subjected to extensive field evaluation trails by the Indian Air Force at several locations across the globe.
The Defence Ministry had earlier cleared the way for opening commercial bids of Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon by approving their offset proposals.
Tags:Dassault, Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, India, Indian Air Force, MMRCA
Posted in Aviation, Defense, India | 5 Comments »
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