India's Changing Innovation System Achievements, Challenges, and Opportunities for Cooperation: Report of a Symposium (2007) / Chapter Skim
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Panel I: India and the United States: An Emerging Global Partnership
Panel I: India and the United States: An Emerging Global Partnership
Pages 35-52
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From page 35... ...
He then invited Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission for India, to speak on the topic of "India's Reforms: Current Challenges and Opportunities." The deputy chairman, he said, has a long history of public service in a variety of leadership positions in India, and, more recently, at the International Monetary Fund. A prolific scholar, he is not only a student but also an architect of many of India's key economic reforms of the past 25 years.
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From page 36... ...
The first is the strategic perception that it is better to exercise caution in moving forward than simply to undertake shock therapy. The second is a deliberate decision to move forward at a pace that would build consensus for change, thereby avoiding excessive controversy over any one issue.
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"We are trying to emphasize here," he stated, "that these transitions are not automatic." Four Major Challenges Facing India He then listed challenges that India is facing in four critical sectors -- agriculture, social services, infrastructure, and energy -- and declared that each offered a very substantial scope for advancement through cooperation between India and the United States. Agriculture A very large percentage of India's population continues to derive the majority of its income from agriculture, even though agriculture's component of India's GDP, at 20 percent, has fallen off significantly.
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From page 38... ...
Energy The Planning Commission believes that, to sustain an economic growth rate of 8.5 percent, India would need growth in total energy supplies on the order of 6.5 percent per year, a figure that assumes great improvements in energy efficiency. Underlining the potential this might offer for collaboration between India and the United States, Mr.
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McCormick introduced Secretary Bodman as ideally suited to speak on U.S.–India Science and Technology Cooperation as a scientist, scholar, former CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and current senior government official. OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN U.S.–INDIAN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGy COOPERATION Samuel Bodman Department of Energy Underlining the importance of the day's meeting, Secretary Bodman expressed gratitude for the remarks of Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia, whose leadership in India's economic reform effort he called "a major reason that we now see India both as a potential partner and a competitor." India is a friendly competitor, to be sure, but an effective competitor in the global marketplace nonetheless.
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This cooperation will do much to enhance energy security for both countries because it can promote the development of stable and efficient energy markets and enhance the research and development of alternative energy sources, work that was already under way. Collaboration Under Way in Energy Their joint statement also referred to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)
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From page 41... ...
An example of the type of cooperation that the United States hopes to encourage is India's decision to join the FutureGen international partnership, an effort to create a zero-emission, coal-fired power plant that would convert all the energy in the coal used to fuel it into a stream of clean hydrogen while sequestering the resulting carbon dioxide beneath the ground. Secretary Bodman noted that the United States appreciates India's agreement to participate in both the government steering committee guiding the project and the industry alliance handling its actual construction, as well as its pledge of $10 million in financing.
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From page 42... ...
President Bush, in his 2006 State of the Union Address, had laid out what the Secretary described as an ambitious but achievable program to expand research and development in alternative resources of energy. Known collectively as the President's Advanced Energy Initiative, these efforts are geared to bring to the market energy produced using cellulosic ethanol, hydrogen, solar, and wind-based technologies.
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NEW SyNERGIES IN U.S.–INDIAN COOPERATION Ram Shriram Google Noting that he was an outsider to Washington but a Silicon Valley insider over the previous 25 years, Mr. Shriram proposed to share some personal experiences, most specifically those with Google -- in particular, how Google uses innovation as a competitive advantage to build its business.
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Shriram said. Company Organization Accents Transparency In its internal processes, Google does everything that many major corporations do -- delegating document review, for example -- but in what he described as "a very lightweight sort of online, intranet way." All projects were posted on the company intranet for everyone to see, so that even small projects were called to colleagues' attention.
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Far from considering India a labor-arbitrage, cost-saving destination, Google views its Indian operations to be on a par with those of its Mountain View headquarters or the R&D centers it had opened in New York City, Zurich, Tokyo, or, most recently, at Beijing's Tsinghua University. Google recognizes that not all talent resides in Silicon Valley, nor does everyone want to move there.
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Shriram was willing to wager that some percentage of those rejected by the IITs have been subsequently accepted by Ivy League schools, he posited that there were many applicants who were nearly selected and who could handle the coursework and benefit from alternatives in high-quality education. Offering additional direct incentives for investment in education and research in India would therefore be a very proactive, helpful step.
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From page 47... ...
and Indian companies hiring science talent, the supply side demands immediate, collective attention. "We know the talent exists," he said; "they just don't have the ability to go to school." Furthering Exchange of Skilled Personnel Highly desirable as well is additional "joint level ‘measurable' research" with support from U.S.
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Dr. Newman said that as chair of the Standing Committee on Regional Connectivity, which deals with global collaborations, he has worked on the issues of network development, grid development, and digital divide in many different regions of the world.
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From page 49... ...
Mr. Ahluwalia answered that there was no doubt of the need for a massive expansion of India's education sector, adding that this major issue has been raised explicitly in the discussion document recently sent by the Planning Commission to the states and is to be debated over the next year or so.
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"Today's Green Revolution is going to be about farmers growing a multiplicity of products." High-Tech Solutions for Farmers and Fishers Now providing farmers with electronic access to information were India's Krishi Vigyan Kendras, or Farm Science Centers, one of which the minister had visited one month before. This center, which serves a district of roughly 1 million people, hosts a Web site offering information about the kinds of crops growing in the area; diseases to which particular crops are vulnerable, with pictures to help identify the diseases; and recommendations formulated according to local conditions.4 Those sending in questions by e-mail would receive answers based on consultation with the agricultural research university in the area.
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In Pondicherry, there had been strong resistance to modernizing fishing boats on the grounds that it would disrupt traditional livelihoods. Now, however, the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite provides information on temperature conditions in the Indian Ocean -- and, from there, to map onto where the fish were likely to be.
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private equity firms seeking opportunities in India, and similar Indian firms seeking opportunities in the United States. That forum, in which hundreds of business people from both countries had been engaged, had proved a constructive one.
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