Month: May 2014

Why it is a good idea for India to have a Temasek Holdings of its own?

Recently there has been talk of India having its own Sovereign Wealth Fund. The idea espoused by TV 18 Founder Raghav Bahl has attained additional intellectual fuel by Economic Thinker Arun Shourie’s backing of the idea. A Sovereign Wealth Fund for India will be a holding company for the profitable public sector enterprises, and will be a ‘National Champion’ in French parlons extrapolating National Power overseas such as an Alstorm or a Arcelor. According to policy research, the locus of the corporate headquarters helps the organization to leverage national assets in a globalized marketplace of ideas and assets. In short it is an extension of foreign policy and state capitalism. Temasek Holdings and GIC, the Sovereign Wealth Funds of the Republic of Singapore have been vehicles of this meritocratic City-State to help it punch above its weight class in the international financial community. Singaporean Sovereign Wealth Fund’s were one of the biggest investors in the 2008 financial depression. The Changi Naval Base in Singapore regularly hosts US Navy ships.  Financial and Economic might go hand in hand. Recently, Singapore has emerged as the largest offshore trading hub for the Chinese Yuan.

Qatar Holdings is one of the world’s most aggressive sovereign wealth funds snapping up assets across the globe. Although Qataris are incredibly affluent with an absolute monarchy, its prominence in the domain of state craft is a case in point.  A country such as India should not compare with these islands of affluence. China, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico are probably better examples to draw a comparative. As a prominent media commentator from Singapore quipped on my Facebook discussion thread on the same theme as this post,  that India missed the competitive resource nationalism bus vis-a-vis China long time back but an ONGC Videsh would have found it much easier to compete with a CNOOC if India had an over-arching SWF to back it in the international financial markets.

A muscular foreign policy needs the cash of an SWF to enforce its talk. The ability to raise capital and acquire assets at will is crucial towards projecting strength. A good idea whose time is ripe, actually long over due.

 

Urban self-organised movements: what does the AAP case portray?

The Aam Admi Party is a text book case-study in self-organized urban movements that have utilized the power of web 2.0 to the hilt. Aam Aadmi Party metamorphosed from a civil society movement against corruption lead by the political sage Anna Hazare to a political phenomena that stormed Delhi State Politics in the December 2013 polls. It had fresh faces, intellectuals, the real common dweller in Delhi behind it fueled by crowd sourced rupees and dollars with NRI social media and on the ground volunteers coming together as a never before alternative to Indian Political Scene. The 49 day Kejriwal Administration was an extended version of a Bollywood Potboiler aka Nayak starring Anil Kapoor in 2001.

But Real Politik is not the same as reel life. Then , the story unraveled. Against a well oiled PR (Development powered) machinery of Narendra Modi Inc; The AAP activist narrative came a cropper. All its candidates in Delhi and Haryana lost, but it surprised everyone with four parliamentary seats won in Punjab. It is slowly occupying an alternative space between the Akalis and the Congress. It was the silver lining in a sky of gloom. 

Kejriwal’s theatrical antics help in mobilizing media focus. Kejriwal’s Tihar Arrest boosted online donations 35X in one day.  Street Politics is a good thing but the urban voter wishes to have mini Singapore’s in his/her neighborhood and not dharna disrupting his traffic flow back home from office.  

I do agree that the entire point of AAP was about making a point. But in order to scale up a political start up like AAP it needs a product that closes the deal with the voter. A Strong Leader with a sharp oriented focus like Modi is the need of the hour that India needs vis-a-vis a rhetoric based AAP. 

AAP needs to re-calibrate its business plan. Otherwise it shall be relegated to the infamous annals of contemporary Indian Political History as a one hit wonder. I am sure Kejriwal and YY has more bright ideas.

 

‘How a Chai-wallah came to occupy 7RCR’ : the Leadership Story of the Modi Campaign

India’s social architecture is changing. India’s demographic dividend is finally paying up (a term popularized by Technocrat Politico Nandan Nilekani). This 9 Phase atrociously staggered election was punctuated with every nuanced characteristic of the Idea of India whether its is caste, religion, jingoism, and all the varied characters which would befit a Bollywood multi-starrer. This election leveraged Social Media to the hilt and the poll where 24×7 news TV made a resounding comeback (really entertaining coverage to admit must add at Times Now and CNN IBN). The BJP ran a very detailed 360 degree communications strategy with a technocratic precision with the on the ground hardware interface of the Sangh, The oratory prowess and the charisma of Narendra Modi vis-a-vis a quite non-verbose (pun intended) Manmohan Singh and rather amateurish Rahul Gandhi (demonstrated aptly via his inadequate interview with Arnab). 

In Delhi, where i currently live i was constantly bombarded with images of a strong Narendra Modi at the Bus Stop, Metro System and even on the radio the commuter is not sparred with the emotive communication with the tenor-theme of ‘Inflation Escaping and Development Coming in to the Country’. It was myth making sound-byte by sound byte. Manufactured Consent building via the media discourse is the hallmark of this communications campaign. To a certain extent this was an intelligent media campaign with respect to the flawed and disastrous ‘India Shining’ Campaign where boastful noise crowded out the message of the growth story post the Kargil War.

The media campaign was presidential carved around the twin heads of Leadership and to a shade lesser the prospective narrative of development. Both the themes reinforce one another. A strong leader can deliver the vision of development with force. The nuances of a 56 inch chest, Bangladeshi infiltrators, taking Mamata di head on are all symbolic of a masochistic political thought. Young India is raging high on hormones. It appreciates the brash, not the weak projection of the leftist intellectual class representative of the National Advisory Council. The ‘In the Face’ media narrative of the NaMo Campaign resonated well with the urban youth as they were all enthused with the proactive message rather than the emasculating, deafening silence of the UPA dispensation.

The narrative was constructed through a series of interviews with media honchos such as Arnab Goswami. Modi gamed the interview with him unlike the Rahul Gandhi one which TMC Leader Derek O’Brien called it a ‘Kindergarten Interview’. He has deftly put the issues of the long flogged horse of Secularism and minority community apprehensions regarding a Modi Government to the backburner. It is a communications home-run, for sure. How Team Modi managed to thwart the negative 2002 back-story and build a momentum is a Political Branding Case-Study at a Business School.

Whether or not a Narendra Modi Administration is a hit in the long term is a secondary issue, and honestly not the topic for analysis at-least in this post. This soul of this narrative is how a ‘chai-wallah came to occupy 7RCR’ , through the straight forward message of leadership and hope. 

 

Sustainability …

Sustainability is a multi headed creature encompassing Social and Ecological Justice translated in to actionable instruments to deliver a better quality of life. Sustainability has to mesh well within the paradigm of Industrial Capitalism as Environmentalism cannot exist in a void