Indian Prime Minister Research Articles

Make in India - the Pros and Cons

Make in India is an international marketing strategy, conceived by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on 25 September 2014 to attract investments from commercial enterprises around the universe and make India the manufacturing Hub. The aim is to generate a percentage of manufacturing in country's gross domestic product from stagnant 16% currently to 25% by 2022, as stated in national manufacturing policy, and to create 100 million jobs by 2022. The major objective behind the initiative is to focus on 25 sectors of the economy for job creation and skill enhancement. Make in India is the key to revitalization of Indian economy. It is one of the schemes to tear back the economy from the clutches of recession. Manufacturing business in India initiative aims to adjust the composition of Indian GDP, which is the base cause of the recessional. Currently India's GDP is heavily weighted in favor of the service sector. Secondary research is practiced in the design of the work and this paper discusses about Make in India scheme, its opportunities, challenges, changes needed and some lessons of different investors, invested so far. Make in India campaign surely makes India an investment destination and global hub for manufacturing and innovation. Major hurdle is from environmental issues and clearances.

The Indo-US Nuclear Deal-A Decade After

On 18 July 2005, our former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and former President of USA, George Bush, had signed a historic Joint Statement on future strategic partnership between the two countries that included economic, energy and strategic components. In the Joint Statement, USA not only recognized India as a state with advanced nuclear technology, but also committed to achieve full civil nuclear energy cooperation with India. The genesis of the Joint Statement was a dialogue begun earlier in January 2004 between India and USA, ‘Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP)’, when the two countries agreed to negotiate and expand cooperation in the three areas that also included civilian nuclear activities. The Joint Statement was followed by a formal Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, signed by the same two dignitaries on 2 March 2006 in New Delhi. While these were presented as natural steps in the direction of facilitating high-technology trade, there was considerable skepticism amongst us. I was part of the Indian delegation accompanying the Prime Minister to the US and had an opportunity to witness from close quarters some of the hectic parleys preceding the signing of the Joint Statement. How can one forget that for a large part of the 60 years of independent India, USA has not been our great ally? How can one also forget the US-led technology denial regime following the 1974 Pokhran Peaceful Nuclear Experiment by India? The NSSP and the Joint Statement therefore came as a surprise to many of us. The foremost question in everyone’s mind was ‘What is there in it for us and what is there in it for the US?’

Role of Japanese official development assistance in enhancing infrastructure development in India

Assistance to India from Japan under its Official Development Aid (ODA) programme has been particularly important for infrastructure development. India has been the single largest recipient of Japanese ODA since 2003–2004. Most of it has been directed towards long-term participation in infrastructure, much of which comes from the enormous demand. With the Indian Prime Minister’s visit on 3 August 2014, Japan committed to invest $35 billion in different sectors focusing on infrastructure in the coming five years. This investment will boost India’s infrastructure sector. Poor infrastructure is a constraint to sustaining India’s high and inclusive growth rate. One major bottleneck in infrastructure development is infrastructure financing (along with many others, such as land acquisition, environment clearance, and cost-time overruns). In this context, the paper explores the impact of Japanese ODA on the infrastructure sector in India, the trends and priority sectors for Japanese ODA, and the problems and challenges of this developing relationship.

Foreign University Bill: Overview and Analysis

This is a study of the Foreign University Bill in India that would allow the foreign universities to open their branches in India. The introduction of the bill could bring a new horizon and much awaited change to the Indian Education System. It is a detailed study of the initial date of proposal of the bill to its current status as per the government' and news reports. The bill was introduced in 2010 but faced much opposition by the political parties. With the launch of Niti Ayog, a think tank formed under the governance of the Prime Minister of India, Shri. Narendra Modi the bill was seen under a new light. Mr Modi asked Niti Ayog to re-establish a research and prepare a detailed review about the aim, impact and application of the Foreign University Bill. It will result as an excellent step towards globalization by allowing foreign universities to set-up their campus in India. The case study embodies data and information from the last six years 2010 to 2016. The report shares an overview and analysis of the proposed Foreign University Bill in detail

One Asia, or Many? Reflections from connected history

It is now widely rumoured that the ‘Asian century’ is upon us. But what does this really mean? As late as 1988, Deng Xiaoping—in remarks made before the Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi—expressed some scepticism about the facility of the formulation. As Deng stated then:In recent years people have been saying that the next century will be the century of Asia and the Pacific, as if that were sure to be the case. I disagree with this view. If we exclude the United States, the only countries in the Asia-Pacific region that are relatively developed are Japan, the ‘four little dragons’, Australia and New Zealand, with a total population of at most 200 million. (. . .) But the population of China and India adds up to 1.8 billion. Unless those two countries are developed, there will be no Asian century. No genuine Asia-Pacific century or Asian century can come until China, India and other neighbouring countries are developed. By the same token, there could be no Latin-American century without a developed Brazil. We should therefore regard the problem of development as one that concerns all mankind and study and solve it on that level. Only thus will we recognize that it is the responsibility not just of the developing countries but also of the developed countries.Whatever the doubts about his standing as a Marxist, then, we may say that Deng remained resolutely universalist in his perspective, at least outwardly.

Non-Alignment, 1946–1965: Its Establishment and Struggle against Afro-Asianism

Scholars often confuse Non-Alignment and Afro-Asianism. Although sibling movements with shared roots in Nehruvian thinking, they had diverse, though overlapping, sets of members and different goals. The current article explores through the lens of the three founding fathers of Non-Alignment—Nehru, Tito, and Nasser—how the movement emerged and eventually struggled to free itself from Afro-Asianism. Nehru toyed with ideas of non-alignment since World War II, before Tito and Nasser were even in power. In the mid-1950s, the Indian Prime Minister was able to convince the Yugoslav President of his ideas; shortly afterwards, Tito convinced Nasser to join. In the five subsequent years, the Yugoslav and Egyptian leaders promoted the ideas of establishing a formal movement—often against the positions of their Indian friend. And from 1961 to 1965, during its first four years as a movement, Non-Alignment eventually broke free from Afro-Asianism. The article uses archival documents from India, former Yugoslavia, former East Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and Australia.

Pradhanmantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY): An Effort Towards Financial Inclusion in India

Financial Inclusion is a mechanism to disseminate financial knowledge and financial products through financial institutions to unreached masses at an affordable cost. The PMJDY is a scheme recently launched by the Honorable Prime Minister of India in August 2014. The Indian Public, Private and RRBs have made efforts to implement this scheme in all states/UTs of India by opening accounts of households in Rural and Urban areas. The deposit has also been raised by all the banks in all the states/UTs in India. An effort has been done to study the implementation level of the PMJDY as it is a step towards Financial Inclusion.

Indias Act East Policy and Implications for Southeast Asia

The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the upgrading of India's erstwhile “Look East Policy” (LEP) to a more action-oriented “Act East” strategy at the India–ASEAN summit in Myanmar in November 2014. Since then, much debate and discussion has taken place on the nature and content of the strategy. A large part of the debate has been speculative, since India is yet to come out with an official vision statement for it. However, various pronouncements by India, as well as the shifting pattern of its engagement with countries to its East, are beginning to throw greater light on the strategy. This chapter discusses the features of the strategy as discernible till now and emphasizes its geographic scope and strategic depth. It discusses the specific relevance and implications of the Act East strategy for Southeast Asia. While India's engagement with ASEAN is likely to become more comprehensive and strategic over time, the region would need to be prepared for the implications of India playing a more active role in regional affairs. Act East: What it Means One of the noticeable aspects of the Act East strategy has been the lack of any specific articulation about it from the Indian establishment. This could well be due to the strategy being an evolving one. Apart from its own evolution through the Indian strategic prism, Act East, clearly, is trying to take note of the rapid and complex developments in the region, particularly changes in the economic and security dynamics. An analytical understanding of Act East, since its announcement a year ago, has been largely gleaned from a number of official statements emphasizing India's eagerness to play a proactive role to its East. Most of these statements are attributable to Prime Minister Modi, who has contextually alluded to Act East on several occasions. As mentioned earlier, the first of these was at the ASEAN Summit in November 2014 in Myanmar, when he announced the upgrading of the LEP to the action-oriented Act East policy. He mentioned Act East again during his visit to South Korea in May 2014, emphasizing the country's importance as a partner in the policy. Soon after, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj underlined India's efforts to engage more deeply with Southeast Asia through the Act East policy and described Thailand as a significant partner in this respect during her visit to Bangkok in June 2015.

Contribution of Indian Prime Ministers to Social Welfare

Contribution of Indian Prime Ministers to Social Welfare

Da incredibile a credibile: strategie nazionali di promozione turistica in India

Tourism is at the top of Indian current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda: according to Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto, tourism can play a key role in India’s socio-economic progress. The country had last formulated a tourism policy in 2002, when the multimillion dollar nation branding campaign which received the name “Incredible India” was launched on an international level. The primary objective of this branding exercise was to create a distinctive identity for the country. Through the analysis of the campaign’s themes, the paper discusses its connection with orientalist imagery and colonial meanings as well as its effectiveness in promoting the Indian tourist industry. The article dwells on how the government’s campaign constructs the Indian difference for an imagined global audience. Questions of cultural othering, the role of colonialism, and contemporary neocolonial structures in relation to tourism promotion for India are discussed. In this paper it is argued that, if the government is serious about branding India with Narendra Modi’s much hyped 5 Ts, with tourism as a leading contributor, a new paradigm different from the “Incredible India” one may be necessary.

Digitalization A New Innovation Wave in India

On July 1, 2015, Indian Prime Minister inaugurated Digital India week. Digital technologies or Digitalization is the latest wave of innovation that is connecting people, products and services. Digitalization is a result of converging of Information technology, telecommunication, internet and other related technologies. This is a part of the technological revolution we have been witnessing over the last couple of decades. There have been five such recorded technological revolutions. Digitalization is converting today’s society to a highly networked society. This Digitalization wave is likely to result in social, economic and political transformations of different countries. India has not yet participated in any of the five technological revolutions that have taken place during the last 250 years. All the technological revolutions started in one western country and spread to others countries in the west. Most of the Western countries have benefited from these revolutions. India, even after over six decades of independence, is still struggling with the basic socio-economic challenges of poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, illiteracy, health care and now development induced environmental degradation. These problems are a result of long spells of colonialism, and poor governance systems that were left behind. This paper argues that modern Digitalization technologies have the potential to assist in addressing many such challenges. The paper aims to examining the role of modern digitalization technologies in solving socio-economic problems of India. Is this wave likely to help in providing inclusive growth to people of India and thereby bring in positive social change? This very relevant question is the focus of this paper.

Revolutionary Nonviolence

Revolutionary Nonviolence

Modi's Maritime Diplomacy: A Strategic Opportunity

This paper examines the maritime diplomacy of India's Prime Minister Modi, and argues that it is encapsulated in the acronym SAGAR, i.e. security and growth for all in the region. This vision also spells out that maritime security is the primary responsibility of the littoral states, while stressing cooperation and collaboration. It also highlights aspects of the Blue Economy and suggests that SAGAR is nonassertive, seeks peaceful resolution of disputes and calls for a commitment by all countries to adhere to international maritime laws. The paper argues that India conducts its maritime diplomacy at three levels which give it a “strategic strength”. They are: high-level bilateral visits where strategic issues are an important component; regional collaborative means; and, lastly, revitalizing the cultural and civilisational links with projects such as “Project Mausam”. The paper concludes that the International Fleet Review to be held at Vishakhapatnam in 2016 gives India a “strategic opportunity” to contribute to a maritime narrative which may be able to address the mistrust in the current global maritime order.

Challenges to the Revision of the Nepal–India 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty

The contemporary strategic and political environment has gone through tremendous changes in comparison to the context in which the 1950 treaty was signed. The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s August 2014 visit to Nepal, the first by an Indian prime minister in 17 years, has rekindled the hope of improving Nepal–India relations, including revision of the 1950 treaty. Against this backdrop, this article argues that without understanding India’s strategic, security-related and political concerns, revision of the 1950 treaty is highly unlikely. The article further argues that by identifying and addressing the key challenges, both countries can develop a shared strategic vision which in turn can provide an enhanced framework for the revision of the 1950 treaty and further strengthen the ‘special’ Nepal–India relationship in the changed strategic context of the 21st century.

Notes on Church-State Affairs

A woman named Farhunda got into an argument with a mullah in Kabul over his practice of selling charms to women at a shrine. The argument became heated and people in the surrounding crowd started accusing her of burning a Qur'an which she denied, saying she was a good Muslim. Eventually she was beaten to death and her body dragged around behind a car. Police investigated the matter and said they found no evidence that she had burned a Qur'an. They detained eighteen people for participation in the incident, and they suspended thirteen policemen for failing to stop the attack. An Indian Catholic priest, Alexis Prem Kumar, who was kidnapped in southern Afghanistan in June 2014, was released after an intervention on his behalf by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Father Kumar had headed up the Jesuit Refugee Program from 2011. The Austrian Parliament passed a controversial revision of the 1912 law that made Islam an official religion. The bill gives Muslims greater legal guarantees but prohibits their receiving foreign funds for buildings or imams. The purpose is to combat potential radicalism, but some Muslim groups say that it is discriminatory in that Christians and Jews can receive foreign funds.

An Evaluation of Modis Visit to Bangladesh

Bangladesh and India are two neighboring states in South Asia. They have historical relations with each others. It was a single country till 1947. After Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan Indo-Bangla relationship got new momentum because of Indian help during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. After independence of Bangladesh bilateral relations with India experienced multidimensional phases due to several reasons. Signed a long list of agreements and MoUs between these two nations. Recently Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi visited Bangladesh during 6-7 June 2015. A number of agreements and understanding were signed and renewed during his visit. This document holds a third eye evaluation on Modi's recent visit to Bangladesh and its impact on Bangladesh - India Relationship in future.

Redefining Education to Employment Journey:Changes in Commerce and Management Education

For our people to benefit from new employment opportunities, we must ensure that every Indian is skilled and educated. Education alone is the foundation on which a prosperous and progressive society is built. I wish to see a revolution in education and skill development in the next five years. We will make India a nation of educated people, of skilled people, of creative people." Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India, said at the Red Fort on August 15, 2007.

Narendra Modi Meets Shinzo Abe in Japan

2014 marked an important year for India–Japan relations. The most important events were the victory in the Indian general elections of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and his visit to Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is widely known as a pro-India politician, had called up Modi soon after his victory and invited him to visit Japan. This invitation was warmly accepted by Modi and resulted in his visit to Tokyo and Kyoto from 30 August to 3 September. After the summit on 1 September, Modi and Abe announced the ‘Tokyo Declaration’ which declared ‘the dawn of a new era in Japan–India relations’ (MOFA, Japan 2014a). India–Japan relations have changed dramatically after Yoshiro Mori, then Japanese prime minister, visited New Delhi in August 2000. The two countries had kept a distance from each other before the visit, mainly due to the Cold War politics, with Japan’s alliance with the US and India’s involvement with the Non-Aligned Movement. This state of ‘indifference’ in the relationship worsened to ‘bad relations’ when India conducted nuclear tests in 1998 and Japan imposed sanctions against it. The goal of Mori’s visit in 2000 was to improve the relationship and this objective it seems was largely achieved. He and then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, also of the BJP, agreed to establish the ‘Global Partnership in the 21st Century’ (Embassy of India, Tokyo 2014). Since then, the two governments have successfully developed diplomatic relations in a wide area, including security cooperation.

India 2015: Magic, Modi, and Arundhati Roy

This article looks at the debate about Dr B. R. Ambedkar and (Mahatma) M. K. Gandhi, as launched in a recent essay by Arundhati Roy, in the light of the rise of the Hindu rightist/revivalist party, BJP, under the current Indian Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi.

Where do Indian Institutes Fall Short with Respect to World Class Institutes ? "Gap Analysis"

Indian institutes do not stand high in the world list of educational institutions. Thousands of students every year go abroad for higher education. Foreign universities have started coming into India. Universities in India are being blamed for producing unemployable graduates. UGC (University Grants Commission) in India appears to have failed in its mandated mission. A committee appointed by MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource and Development), Government of India, under the chairmanship of Mr. Hari Gautamrecommended that UGC be abolished. Higher and technical education is behind the needs of themodem times, adversely affecting economic and social growth in India. Both the President and Prime Minister of India have been publicly expressing concern on this account for many years. Yet no improvement is noticed. Some Chinese universities on the other hand have shot up from very low ranking to 35 in the world. Are the words of President and Prime Minister falling on deaf ears? Are they merely speaking like parrots from year to year? Indian institutes are insensitive and woefully unsuited to global demands and are too far behind the world. Do we need to dream big, think great and show commitment to improve? It is said that those who dream big perform better; dreams give energy to minds, mobilize resources and make people competitive and ambitious. The presence of world class institutions is a differentiating factor between the developed and the developing world. They produce globally competent leaders with high intellectual capability so badly needed to raise a nation to greater heights. They produce intellectual capital so essential for the welfare of people. Regions, nations and cities, even if endowed with abundant natural resources like minerals, land, water,etc., are not prosperous if they do not have world class higher education institutes. Knowledge institutions are like Light Houses to society. They are reference points providing guidance and giving direction to people and industry in stormy changes. This is an age of technology, in which scientific and technological capabilities matter most. Making the institutions world class is not an option but a compulsion. It is now not only a matter of spending more money, appointing more men, or providing infrastructure. It is more a matter of adopting appropriate visions and missions and selecting strategies. Indian education system is still traditionbound. Outdated systems like affiliated colleges, lack of autonomy,absence of research and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), have crippled the education. Investments being made by government are subsidizing only the inefficiencies. This is because they lack a strategic outlook. Indian professors abroad have done wonders. Why cannot they perform wonders in India? Is it because they have to work here in India with poor systems and poor governance? This paper recommends adoption of autonomy, research approach, creation of research parks, commercial exploitation of findings of research, patenting, enabling professors to be globally competitive, increasing mobility of professors, etc. This article presents in brief, the gap analysis in respect of visions and missions, policies and practice, organization structures, systems and procedures in India and their counterpart institutions in developed countries. Transformation of higher and technical education to world class level is critical to nurturing able leaders in various professions and vocations, and in critical to turn people's well-being.