Posts Tagged ‘India’

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Sarkozy pushes nuclear, arms deals on India visit

December 5, 2010
The Indian Air Force has the second largest fl...

IAF Mirage 2000H: Image via Wikipedia

Domainb.com reports on the French President’s 4 day visit to India soon after the visits by President Obama and the Russian Prime Minister. The Chinese Premier is due next.

Close on the heels of India’s environment ministry clearing the last hurdle for French nuclear company Areva to supply six third-generation pressurised water reactors for a project worth Rs95,000 crore ($22 billion), French president Nicolas Sarkozy today kicked off a four-day visit to the country, pitching for new nuclear energy and arms contracts.

However, villagers in Jaitapur in Maharashtra, where the plant will come up, today staged a protest. Reports said at least 10,000 people turned up at the site to oppose the project.

Sarkozy, heading a large delegation of 7 ministers as also 60 business leaders, including the heads of aircraft-makers Dassault Aviation and EADS and Areva, to lobby for multibillion-dollar contracts for fighter jets and nuclear equipments, also stressed India’s increased stature in world affairs.

Although Indian officials said no defence deals will be signed during Sarkozy’s visit, French aircraft maker Dassault is hoping to secure a $1.2-billion contract to upgrade 56 Mirage-2000 aircraft that India bought from France in the 80s.

Dassault and EADS are vying with US and Swedish rivals for an Indian Air Force purchase order for 126 warplanes, for an estimated $11 billion.

“We all know how critical it is for India to ensure its energy security,” Sarkozy said in a speech at the Indian Space Research Organisation at India’s technology hub Bangalore.

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Belated action on scientific misconduct in India

November 18, 2010

The Calcutta Telegraph carries the sordid story of scientific fraud, establishment denial, paper retractions and finally establishment acceptance of the misconduct.

The Gopal Kundu controversy

A controversy erupted in National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune in 2006 when an anonymous mail alleged that the authors (H. Rangaswami and Colleagues from the group of Dr. Gopal Kundu) may have misrepresented data in a paper published in Journal of Biological Chemistry. The allegation was that they had rehashed the same set of data which they had published earlier. An internal committee of the NCCS advised the authors to take back their paper, however an independent committee led by G. Padmanabhan, a former director of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, concluded that there was no manipulation in the data. This led to some heated debate between Indian Scientists with several viewpoints being presented. On 23 February 2007, the Journal of Biological Chemistry withdrew the paper amid allegations of data manipulation. The authors still maintain that the two papers used different set of data though similar experiments.

However the panel set up was not as independent as claimed. Its members were chosen by the Government and – as often when things get politicised in India – they returned a “politically correct” white-wash. But now as The Telegraph reports:

An apex association of Indian scientists today debarred for three years a senior biologist who had been accused of plagiarism by international scientific journals three years ago but was exonerated by a government panel of top scientists.

The unprecedented action by the Bangalore-based Indian Academy of Sciences, after an internal investigation by its ethics committee, appears to vindicate claims by some scientists that the government-appointed panel had tried to shield the accused.

At its annual meeting in Goa today, the academy endorsed the decision by its ethics committee (which was accepted by the academy’s council in July) and barred Gopal Kundu from participating in the academy’s activities for three years, beginning August 2010.

Nor can Kundu, a research scientist at Pune’s National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), propose any candidates for fellowship of the academy during this period.

The prestigious US-based Journal of Biological Chemistry(JBC) had in February 2007 withdrawn a research paper by Kundu, accusing him of reusing images he had published in an earlier paper.

Another journal, Glycoconjugates Journal, too, had withdrawn a paper by Kundu because it had substantial similarities with a paper he had himself published previously in the JBC.

Better late than never but what is more important is the relatively low value given to ethics by the scientific establishment. Ethics, misconduct and scientific rigour can always be trumped by political correctness. Rahul Siddharthan writes in his excellent post:

An internal investigation at Kundu’s institution found him guilty of misrepresenting data, but a subsequent investigation by an external committee of six eminent scientists exonerated him completely, declaring themselves entirely satisfied that the images, though visually similar, were “indeed different.” I subsequently made my own analysis and published it in Current Science, who followed it with a response from G Padmanaban, the head of the committee that exonerated Kundu.

………

To me, this case is not really about Kundu. It is about our complete lack of appreciation of scientific ethics, and our tendency to “close ranks” when trouble arrives. To succumb to this tendency even after an international journal has conducted its own investigation and made its own decision, and to justify it with a paltry two-page report, merely makes us a laughing-stock.

So it is a good thing that the Academy has, belatedly, tried to correct this.

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Obama concludes India visit – leaves for Indonesia

November 9, 2010

The Hindu:

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday left here for Indonesia after his three-day visit to India, during which he announced support for New Delhi’s bid for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council and asked Pakistan to bring perpetrators of 26/11 attacks to justice.

Barack Obama with wife

President and Mrs. Obama leaving India

Mr. Obama and his wife Michelle were given a warm send-off by Minister-in-Waiting Salman Khursheed, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and other officials. U.S. Ambassador to India Timothy J Roemer was also present.

The Air Force One carrying the US First Couple took off from the Delhi Airport at 8.54 AM.

BBC:

The Indian media has hailed US President Barack Obama’s trip to India, saying it had helped forge an “enduring partnership” between the two countries. It lauded Mr Obama for backing India’s ambition for permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

In an address to India’s parliament at the end of a three-day visit on Monday, Mr Obama backed India’s bid to gain a permanent seat on the UN Security council and lavished praised on the country. He also said safe havens for militants in Pakistan were “unacceptable”.

The Hindu said that Mr Obama’s support for a permanent UN Security Council seat for India “represents a significant evolution of American policy towards both India and the world body”.

“Even if he has essentially handed the Indians a cheque that cannot be easily cashed, the US President’s words will strengthen India’s hand as it seeks to press for reform in the UN,” the newspaper said.

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Obama in India: Day 3: Supports India as permanent member of UNSC, criticises India for being too soft on Burma

November 8, 2010

Sify News: Lauding India’s growing role in global bodies, US President Barack Obama Monday said the US welcomed India as it prepared for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. ‘We welcome India as it prepares to take a seat at the United Nations Security Council,’ said Obama in an address to members of the two houses of parliament. “That is why I can say today-in the years ahead, I look forward to a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member,’ he said to loud applause from over 780 MPs.

 

Houses of Parliament, Delhi: image indiareport.com

 

Hindustan Times: ‘Bahut dhanyavad’. This is how US president Barack Obama thanked people of India for the warm welcome and hospitality he and American First Lady Michelle Obama received during their India visit. The ‘thank you’ in Hindi during his 35-minute address at the Central Hall of Parliament was received by thunderous applause by the law makers which included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and top BJP leader LK Advani.

“At every stop, we have been welcomed with the hospitality for which Indians have always been known.  So to you and the people of India, on behalf of me, Michelle and the American people, please accept our deepest thanks. Bahut dhanyavad,” he said. The American President wound up his speech by saying ‘Jai Hind’ which was also received by the MPs with cheers.

AFP: US President Barack Obama criticised India on Monday for failing to condemn rights abuses in Myanmar, saying democracies with global aspirations could not ignore “gross violations” in other countries. “When peaceful democratic movements are suppressed, as they have been in Burma (Myanmar), then the democracies of the world cannot remain silent,” Obama said in an address to the Indian parliament. “Faced with such gross violations of human rights, it is the responsibility of the international community, especially leaders like the United States and India, to condemn it,” he said. “If I can be frank, in international fora, India has often shied away from these issues,” he added.

Earlier in his speech, Obama had, to sustained applause, given his backing to India’s push for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Times of India: The United States and India on Monday signed six agreements besides a plethora of business deals inked separately during US President Barack Obama’s trip to India.

  1. India-US agreement to set up a joint Clean Energy Research and Development Centre. It will be backed by 50 million dollars by both sides over five years and work to complete joint research in solar, biofuels and energy efficiency.
  2. Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership. US will cooperate in India’s plans for a nuclear centre, to promote nuclear security and address threats of nuclear terrorism.
  3. MOU to establish an India-US Energy Cooperation Programme. It will mobilise private sector expertise and resources to address clean energy-related issues in India and the US.
  4. Agreement on technical cooperation to study India’s annual monsoon rains. Cooperation on weather forecasting for India’s crucial annual monsoon.
  5. MOU between India and the US on shale gas resources which will see US technology used to assess shale gas resources in India.
  6. MOU on establishing and operating a Global Disease Detection Centre in India, which will set up a laboratory in New Delhi designed to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

Hindustan Times: India and the United States will set up a $10 billion infrastructure debt fund to help develop India’s physical and social infrastructure, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Monday. “The Governments of India and the United States have agreed in principle to set up the fund on the recommendation of the India-US CEO Forum,” Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of a conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the US-India Business Council in New Delhi. Sharma said India planned to invest $1 trillion in the infrastructure sector in the next five years and a substantial part of the investment would come from the private sector and overseas investment.

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Obama in India: day 1: 10 billion $ of contracts worth 54,000 jobs in US

November 6, 2010

Reuters:

President Barack Obama announced $10 billion in business deals on Saturday as he arrived in India to boost U.S. exports and jobs after a mauling in mid-term polls, but he ran into immediate controversy over Pakistan. Obama flew into Mumbai, India’s financial hub, and announced the United States would also relax export controls over sensitive technology, a demand of India’s that will help deepen U.S. ties with the emerging global power and its trillion dollar economy.

Obama’s first act was to pay tribute to victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, but he was criticized for making no reference to India’s traditional foe Pakistan, which New Delhi blames for harboring anti-India militants. Pakistan-based militants killed 166 people in a 60-hour rampage through India’s financial hub, gunning down their victims at luxury hotels, a train station and a Jewish center. India says elements in the Pakistan state were behind the attacks.

But Obama’s trip is also about business, with China now ahead of the United States in trade with India. The $10 billion in deals will support 54,000 jobs in the United States, White House aide Michael Froman said. The White House also announced Obama would support India’s membership of four global non-proliferation organizations, a move that will reassure New Delhi — left out of these groups after its 1998 nuclear tests — that Washington is recognizing its global clout.

He spends the night at the The Taj Hotel and flies to Delhi tomorrow afternoon. I expect a few more contracts to be settled with the 215 strong corporate leaders who make up the accompanying business delegation.

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Obama travels to India looking to boost US jobs

November 6, 2010

The Times of India carries a smug story about President Obama’s visit to India which starts today:

President Barack Obama hasn’t been able to drive down unemployment in America, so he’s coming to India in search of US jobs. Four days after his party suffered heavy, economy-influenced losses in Congress, the president will arrive Saturday in Mumbai, India’s booming financial center, where he will meet with local business leaders and with American executives who have traveled to India in search of billions of dollars in trade deals.

The White House hopes to announce agreements on aircraft and other exports. The administration says that jobs and the US economy are the focus of Obama’s 10-day Asia trip, a message aimed at inoculating him against any criticism that he is concentrating on foreign affairs while Americans are suffering with unemployment at 9.6 percent. He left Washington shortly after the government reported the economy added 151,000 jobs in October but still not enough to lower the jobless rate.

Obama will be speaking to a gathering of Indian and American chief executives on Saturday, and he’s expected to announce the completion of job-producing commercial deals. The US has been looking for India to finalize purchases of Boeing aircraft and marine engines produced by Caterpillar, among other exports. However, serious disagreements remain, and they appear unlikely to be resolved during Obama’s visit.

President Obama will arrive in New Delhi with his largest business delegation ever to a country. The 215-member team of US business leaders will be looking to deepen commercial ties with India. Mr Obama will also address India’s Parliament – only the second US president to do so after Bill Clinton. India is hoping for an announcement on the lifting of nuclear curbs during the visit. New Delhi has long lobbied for Washington to allow the sale of sensitive technology that was denied to the country after it conducted a nuclear test.

 

Taj Hotel, Mumbai: Wikimedia Commons

 

The US wish list includes Defence agreements worth $ 12 billion among contracts creating upto 60,000 jobs in the US, verification processes for Indian nuclear plants and Indian promises for more market access.

On Saturday night President Obama will stay at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai which was the target of the terror attack on 26th November 2008 where 173 people were killed. India will be looking for the US support for Pakistan to be less forgiving of the terrorist training camps in Pakistan.

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Sexy Coal India shares list with an opening gain of 32%

November 4, 2010

 

Bombay Stock Exchange

BSE: Image via Wikipedia

 

The Coal India IPO where the Government of India divested 10% of its shares in the worlds largest coal producer was massively oversubscribed. The share price was set at 245 Rs at the top of its offer range of 225 – 245 Rupees.

The shares were listed today and the price immediately zoomed to 324 Rs showing an opening gain of 32%.

The Economic Times reports:

The world’s largest coal producer today listed on the bourses with a handsome premium and zoomed over 32 per cent, over its IPO issue price of Rs 245 per share, to hit a high of Rs 324.75 in the first hour of trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Partha S. Bhattacharyya, Chairman & MD, Coal India Limited says, “Many records have been broken and many peaks have been scaled. For the officials intensely involved in the process, the feeling largely resembles to that of a mother who has just given birth to a child. Indeed it is a moment of birth in the capital market that brings in huge responsibility on the management to rear the newborn baby into a strong and mature turnout by living upto the expectations of the investing community consistently.”

Prasad Baji, Senior VP, Edelweiss says, “Technically Coal India’s valuation is running not just as a coal company but since its model is different, it is selling in India where there is an assured offtake and its pricing will never see a price tag, therefore, it is not typically a commodity play as compared to other coal companies.

Investors included Janus Capital, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton and Capital International. Domestic investors included State Bank of India , ICICI Bank and Life Insurance Corp. Maximum subscription was in the high net worth category with subscription of around 25 times. Amit Aggrawal, a financial services executive who borrowed Rs 90 million to bid for Coal India shares, says that he would take some profits off the table at Rs 320 a share. “I may hold back some shares and sell them at a later stage,” says Mr Aggrawal.

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Posted in Business, Energy, India, Investing | 1 Comment »

Manufacturing in India and China powers ahead and driven by domestic consumption

November 2, 2010

Reuters reports on the latest PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) numbers:

 

image: whatsinbiz.wordpress.com

 

Manufacturing growth in India and China powered ahead last month and U.S. industry also picked up steam, according to data on Monday that suggested the global economic recovery may be on firmer footing.

China’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to a six-month high in October of 54.7 from 53.8 in September, easily beating market forecasts of 52.9.

The strength of China’s official PMI was especially striking because the index normally heads down in October, said Yu Song and Helen Qiao, economists at Goldman Sachs. “The fact that the PMI went up despite this seasonal bias suggests real activity growth was likely to have been exceedingly strong in October,” they said in a note. The survey showed manufacturers continued to run down stocks last month to meet rising domestic orders. “These readings bode well for a recovery of output in coming months,” Ting Lu at Bank of America Merrill Lynch told clients. A companion PMI produced by Markit for HSBC painted a similar picture, rising to 54.8 from 52.9 — one of the largest month-on-month rises in the history of the survey.

Manufacturing in India — Asia’s other emerging powerhouse — put in a performance every bit as strong as China’s. India’s manufacturing was supported by strong domestic consumption. The HSBC Markit PMI for India, Asia’s third-largest economy, rose to 57.2 in October from 55.1 in September.

Mirroring a report from Japan last Friday, South Korean manufacturing shrank for the second month in a row as the HSBC/Markit PMI fell to 46.75 in October — the lowest since February 2009 — from 48.8 in September.

An unexpected rise in Britain’s manufacturing index to 54.9 will increase doubts that the Bank of England will soon embark on more quantitative easing. It followed official data last week that showed the UK economy grew at a surprisingly strong rate of 0.8 percent in the third quarter from the second.

Equivalent surveys from Europe are due on Tuesday, but Britain’s PMI showed manufacturing growth picked up pace last month for the first time since March.

Flash October figures for Germany, released last month, also gave a strong reading although much of Europe remains mired in debt and poised to cut public spending to deal with it — a move that will crimp economic growth going forward.

It seems that the Chinese and Indian motors are being fuelled primarily by domestic consumption which continues to grow strongly. Perhaps this is not so surprising considering that the growth of the consuming “middle-class” in India and China is probably the fastest it has ever been. In India this growth is probably twice the growth of the total population (and there is some belief that population growth rates drop sharply for people as they enter the “consuming middle-class”).

Japanese manufacturing is being hampered by the strong Yen and Korean manufacturing is yet to pick up. In Europe, the weak Euro is driving German exports and UK manufacturing is showing very strong. The low Dollar value may be beginning to help US exports as well.

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Coal India IPO: Coal becomes sexy again

October 23, 2010

Coal India Limited (CIL) is an Indian state-owned coal company headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and the world’s largest coal miner with revenue exceeding Rs 45,797 Cr or $10.3 billion U.S. (FY2008-09). It is owned entirely by the Union Government of India, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Coal.

 

Coal India Ltd.: Reuters graphic/ Christine Chan

 

As part of its divestment programme to raise about 9 Billion$, the Government of India has put up  10% of Coal India Ltd. in an IPO conducted this week. If priced at the top of its 225-245 rupee price range, the IPO would swell Government coffers by about 3.5 Billion$ and Coal India would have a market value of $35 billion, ranking it seventh among listed Indian firms. As the Economic Times puts it “The response to the Coal India (CIL) initial public offering (IPO) that finally closed early Friday morning, after lead managers were forced to extend the time limit to deal with a deluge of applications, has been phenomenal. Against the issue amount of Rs 150 billion, bids came in for Rs 2.54 trillion and the final total could be higher.
While retail investors seem to have been relatively circumspect — the retail portion was over-subscribed only 2.32 times — and employees even more so — the employee portion was not fully subscribed — both institutional and highnet-worth buyers seem to have participated with gusto.”

 

coal mine in India

Open cast coal mine in India: Image via Wikipedia

 

While a portion of the shares were held for employees the mining unions discouraged their members from applying. But with the opening price when the shares list on November 4th expected to be around Rs 300 – 320 there is a backlash among the union members who are going to have lost out. The institutional portion was oversubscribed 25 times.

Coal India has reserves of about 277 billion tonnes of which around 60 billions tonnes are currently recoverable by open cast mining. Current annual production is about 400 million tonnes and expected to rise to about 650 million tonnes in 5 years. India currently imports about 100 million tonnes of high grade coal mainly for steel making. Coal India has a major investment programme ongoing for the installation of coal washeries to improve the notoriously poor quality (high levels of abrasive ash) of Indian coals. Most Indian coals have very low values of Sulphur content so that sulphur dioxide emission is not a major concern.

The enormous interest of the institutional investors – both from within and from outside India – is a healthy indicator that simple business considerations rather than pseudo-environmentalism is still the governing factor.

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Statistician wins India Science Prize

October 19, 2010

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday inaugurated the 21st general meeting of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre here.

Dr.  Singh presented the India Science prize, on behalf of the Indian National Science Academy, to  C. Radhakrishna Rao. The prize carried a reward of Rs. 25 lakh (550,000$) in cash and a 200 gram gold medal.

 

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao: image connect.in.com

 

C R Rao (born September 10, 1920) is an Indian statistician. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Penn State University and Research Professor at the University at Buffalo.  The American Statistical Association has described him as “a living legend whose work has influenced not just statistics, but has had far reaching implications for fields as varied as economics, genetics, anthropology, geology, national planning, demography, biometry, and medicine.” Among his best-known discoveries are the Cramér-Rao bound and the Rao-Blackwell theorem both related to the quality of estimators. Other areas he worked in include multivariate analysis, estimation and differential geometry. His other contributions include the Fisher-Rao Theorem, Rao distance, and orthogonal arrays.

CR Rao uses these lines from Robert Frost’s “Pertinax” to begin his book Statistics and truth: putting chance to work

Let chaos storm!

Let cloud shapes swarm!

I wait for form.

 

 

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