Editorial 1: Invent in India
Context:
- Bharat is now the world’s fifth largest economy and will make it to the third spot soon, but it lags behind on most benchmarks concerning innovation, science and technology.
- One of the main reasons for this deficit has been Indian academia and industry failing to meet up its contribution to the national R&D effort.
Role of Make in Indian in India’s growth and Promoting invention
- Manufacturing in key sectors has been hobbled by straitjackets in fundamental factor markets of land, labour and capital, as well as faulty trade policies.
- ,The Make in India momentum is unmistakable with India’s share of global merchandise exports registering fresh highs. Alongside the Make in India push, the government has recognised that the infrastructure to generate patents required an overhaul, and there is a strong effort underway to make it easier and faster to file for and obtain patents for inventions
- Recent bilateral agreements in science and technology, especially with the United States, show that the government is correctly identifying strategic priorities in this vital sector, and appreciates that Invent in India has to complement Make in India.
Invent in India to build momentum and scale
- The newly established National Research Foundation (NRF) will hopefully address this important issue.
- The institutions that mediate the flow of capital and resources to convert scientific knowledge into technology-based wealth will require drastic changes to become effective and efficient
- So that these institutions power India’s economic output to $10 trillion and beyond in the coming decade by delivering on productivity-multiplying R&D across industries.
- The case for such reforms is self-evident — given its wealth of human capital, India has promoted its weight in science and technology, and the status quo is out of sync with the country’s broader economic aspirations, to put it mildly.
Three critical parameters which are expected to enhance invention
- First, merit and quality of human capital should be weighted the highest when it comes to staffing and administration of institutions.
- The bureaucratic mind or administrator’s psyche is geared towards aggregating numbers, but in scientific research, Lotka’s law reigns supreme, and losing the top dozen leaders in a given field to other countries is as good as ceding leadership of that field.
- Quantity is no substitute for quality. This reality of scientific research demands that India gears up to both retain its premier talent at home, as well as position itself as a home for talent from abroad. The remittance-seeking mindset of the Licence Raj era needs to give way to a value creation approach.
- One of the principal flaws of science policy has been the near-complete separation of teaching and research.
- The footprint of research labs and centres across the spectrum of scientific institutions is scattered across India many government labs could enter into structured collaborations with universities and where appropriate, synergise with on-campus science parks that could then expand their activities into industry itself.
- The idea should be to bring teaching and research together in a merit-driven admissions system.
- Second, India should have a barbell strategy for funding research, with high convexity, high payoff projects getting their share of funding from a consortium of government agencies and industry
- There are two precedents for creating this barbell approach: The New Millennium India Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) programme launched in 2003, and the more recent Design-Linked Incentive (DLI) programme.
- Where NMITLI made collaboration across industry, academia and national labs a standard practice, DLI envisages underwriting innovation with big payoffs in collaboration with high technology businesses, with the India Semiconductor Mission receiving appropriate funding for semiconductor design.
- therefore, NMITLI and DLI are reliable models for setting the baseline on R&D, which should be oriented towards industry.
- Global business history shows how joint efforts by government and industry to fund blue sky research have yielded breakout results in areas such as pharmaceuticals, transportation, chemicals and telecommunications.
- In several cases outside India where such results were achieved, the underpinning talent was trained in India but emigrated, which underscores the point on retaining our talent and prioritising merit in staffing and administration.
- Ultimately, bringing industry to the table for such outcomes should be done through the carrot of profit and the stick of competitive pressure.
- Finally, alongside the institutional and hardware changes, the culture and software of Indian science too needs a reboot.
- It is easy to blame politicians for lack of progress, but they act on positions set by science bureaucrats who rely largely on domain experts in academia.
- Inevitably and unfortunately, this group becomes a self-perpetuating clique, with its own inertia and resistance to doing what is necessary, as that could upset a comfortable status quo.
- While good system design for the new setup can incentivise collegiality, undermine hierarchical mindsets, eradicate cartelisation and promote controlled risk taking, eventually long-term outperformance will be depend
Conclusion:
- Therefore, promoting the research and development help in economic growth along with check on brain drain which is crucial not just for India’s economic progress, but for national secu6rity too.
Editorial 2: Why Saudi Arabia matters
Recent Context:
- Recently, during the Mohammed bin Salman in G20 Leaders’ Summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and USA President Joe Biden, announced the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, a massive infrastructure project that would connect India to Europe via West Asia, and could counter 3 China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Saudi Arabia as one of India’s most important strategic partners.
- Both the nations had first meeting of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council.
- The two sides signed eight agreements, including on upgrading their hydrocarbon energy partnership to a comprehensive energy partnership for renewable, petroleum and strategic reserves, and to create a joint task force for $100 billion in Saudi investment.
- They also discussed the possibility of trading in local currencies, and expediting negotiations for a free trade agreement between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council of which Saudi Arabia is a member.
- And India described Saudi Arabia as one of India’s most important strategic partners.
Old Ties with SA getting stronger
- The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1947, and Indian government officials say that there have been cordial and friendly relations that reflect their socio-cultural and economic ties going back centuries.
- The visit of King Abdullah to India in January 2006 was a watershed moment in the relationship. The royal visit resulted in the signing of the Delhi Declaration, which was followed in 2010 by the Riyadh Declaration that elevated bilateral ties to a strategic partnership.
- Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Riyadh in April 2016 captured the spirit of enhanced cooperation in the political, economic, security, and defence realms.
- Further, The visit of Crown Prince Mohammed to India in February 2019 took this momentum further. It was announced that the kingdom would invest approximately $100 billion in India, and six MoUs/ Agreements were signed in a range of fields.
- An agreement was also signed to pave the way for Saudi Arabia to join the International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched by the Prime Minister.
- And PM visited Riyadh again in October 2019. The Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) Agreement was signed during the visit, which established a high-level council to steer the Indo-Saudi relationship. The SPC now has separate subcommittees on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation, and on Economy and Investments. Twelve pacts were signed during the PM’s visit.
Pillars of the relationship: For India, there are four key elements of the strategic ties with Saudi Arabia.
- ECONOMIC TIES:
- India is Saudi Arabia’s second largest trade partner; Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth largest trade partner. Trade with Saudi Arabia accounted for 4.53% of India’s total trade in FY23.
- The joint statement issued during MBS’s visit said, “Both sides praised the burgeoning trade ties and noted that bilateral trade has increased to more than US$52 billion in 2022-23, marking a growth of more than 23%.”.
- Saudi direct investments in India amounted to $3.15 billion , Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invested in several Indian startups such as Delhivery, FirstCry, Grofers, Ola, OYO, Paytm, and PolicyBazaar through SoftBank Vision Fund.
- ENERGY COOPERATION:
- Saudi Arabia is a key partner for ensuring India’s energy security, and was its third largest crude and petroleum products source for FY23.
- India imported 39.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) of crude from the country in FY23, amounting to 16.7% of India’s total crude imports.
- India’s LPG imports from Saudi Arabia stood at 7.85 MMT, and 11.2% of its total petroleum product imports, in FY 23.
- DEFENCE PARTNERSHIP:
- The defence partnership has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years. Then Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane made a landmark visit to Saudi Arabia in December 2020.
- There is extensive naval cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia, and two editions of the bilateral naval exercise, Al Mohed al Hindi, have been concluded so far. Both sides also cooperate closely in the domain of defence industries and capacity-building.
- On defence ties, the joint statement said that the two sides commended their deepening cooperation, and agreed to continue work including joint exercises, training and high-level visits, and to “consider possibilities of joint development and production of defence equipment”
Indian diaspora in Saudi Arab:
- The Indian community in the kingdom is more than 2.4 million strong, widely respected for its contribution to the development of Saudi Arabia, and seen as a living bridge between the two countries.
- The joint statement said the Indian side thanked the Saudi side for taking excellent care of the Indian diaspora residing in the kingdom, supporting the evacuation of Indian nationals stranded in Sudan through Jeddah under Operation Kaveri, and for facilitating Indian Hajj and Umrah pilgrims.
The importance of MBS
- Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has consolidated his power. At age 38, he is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, and has been first in line to succeed his ailing father as King since 2017.
- Through his Vision 2030, MBS has positioned himself as Saudi Arabia’s reformer-in-chief. He has ensured significant changes in the country’s ultra-conservative society, where women have got the right to drive, and where cinemas have been opened, foreign tourists are welcomed, and pop stars and high-profile sports matches have been hosted.
- But he has a reputation for being ruthless with critics — he has been accused by US intelligence of having ordered the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, an allegation that the Saudis have denied. In 2017, Saudi authorities detained about 200 princes and businessmen in Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel in a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown.
- MBS has engaged with China, he is moving towards rapprochement with Iran and Israel, and is also now consolidating the Saudi partnership with the US, India, and Europe. Riyadh still helps Pakistan with economic aid, even while strategically engaging with
- India and Saudi Arabia have stressed the importance of strengthening security cooperation in the field of combating terrorism and its financing.
- Both sides emphasized that terrorism, in all its forms, remains one of the gravest threats to humanity. Both nations agreed that there cannot be any justification for any act of terror for any reason whatsoever
Conclusion:
- Therefore, both the nation has bilateral strategic relation which is expected to further strengthen their relation in the areas of economy, defence, culture and energy with the upcoming time.