FO° Podcasts

Richard Fontaine on US Security in the World Today

Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security, shares his insights on the Israel–Hamas war, the Russia–Ukraine war and a rising but economically troubled China with Fair Observer. In all three theaters, unpredictability reigns. The predictions that have become orthodoxy today may be reversed tomorrow.
 
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Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Who Is the New US House Speaker, Mike Johnson?

Republicans have elected a new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson — a name unknown to many before this moment. Who is he, what does he believe and how will he behave? We ask our Contributing Editor, Washington-based policy wonk Christopher Roper Schell, to explain.
Washington-based policy wonk and former Republican Congressional candidate Christopher Roper Schell shares his thoughts on the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson. The new speaker is an unexpected choice that has left many Republican insiders, including Members of Congress, bewildered.
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Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 
 

The Truth About Pakistan’s Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

In this episode of FO° Podcasts, Fair Observer’s Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh speaks to retired US Treasury economist Nasir Khilji about controversial Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. They discuss Bhutto’s rise to power, his role in creating Bangladesh, and the events leading to his eventual downfall. They answer an abiding question: was Bhutto a hero or a villain, or a bit of both?
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was a Pakistani politician who was the fourth president of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973 and the ninth prime minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977. During his time as a legislator, he founded the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a social-democratic political party in Pakistan, promoting social democracy, equality, and social justice, along with maintaining a strong military. Bhutto also declared Ahmedi non-Muslims, allowed feudal lords into the political system, and destroyed bureaucracy and state ventures. Two opposing narratives surround Bhutto’s reputation as a leader on this episode of FO° Podcasts. One narrative sees him as a great hero of Pakistan who was unfairly killed by a murderous military dictator. The other paints him as a villain who destroyed the economy and established a corrupt dynasty that is still looting Pakistan. Nasir Khilji takes a step back, takes a deep breath and examines Bhutto’s legacy.
 
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Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 
 
 

Make Sense of the Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan

In this episode of FO° Podcasts, Fair Observer’s Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh speaks to Afghan journalist and intellectual Bilal Rahmani. They discuss hunger, displacement, ethnic strife, and gender-based violence, painting a picture of Afghanistan in turmoil and examining potential consequences for the country and the region.
Afghanistan under the Taliban’s leadership is a place of incredible confusion and ambivalence. Economic growth stagnates, rival leaders jostle for power, rebellions break out repeatedly, the Taliban crush them ruthlessly even as they pay lip service to the international community while silencing women and minorities, and foreign relations rapidly deteriorate as mistrust mounts.
Bilal Rahmani explains exactly how the Taliban are transforming Afghanistan into an oppressive pariah state through rank incompetence and self-enriching policy decisions. Eventually, this downward spiral of corruption and violence could spell an end to the modern borders of Afghanistan. 
 
Author Bio
Bilal Rahmani is the director of training and development at Foreign Brief, a geopolitical risk publication. He holds a master of arts in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he extensively researched international security in Asia. Prior to his work in geopolitics, Bilal worked as an Asia domain expert at Dataminr and as a lecturer and teacher throughout mainland China.
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bilalrahmani/ 
 
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Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 
 

Rare Personal Memories of JRD Tata and Life in Business

Hoshang Billimoria reminisces about J. R. D. Tata, the senior managers he chose for the Tata Group and what made them special. He explains how business was extremely difficult in the days of socialism and how private equity can destroy a successful business.
 
Author Bio
Hoshang Billimoria
Hoshang Billimoria is an accomplished professional with a background in commerce and accountancy. After working as a partner at S.B. Billimoria & Co., Hoshang joined the Tata Group in 1989, where he served as Deputy CEO of Tata Sons and then Managing Director of Tata Press. At this company, Hoshang oversaw the company’s transformation, expanding operations into new fields. Subsequently, he played a crucial role in establishing Next Gen Publishing Ltd. in 2005, where he served as the CEO until 2020. Hoshang has also served as an independent director on several boards, including Thomas Cook, HDFC AMC, Fenner Conveyor Belting and Indian Card Clothing. Academically, Hoshang is a topper from Bombay University and also twice winner of the Deloitte Plainder Prize at the examinations conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.
 
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Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 
 
 

Sanjeev Sanyal Makes Sense of the Indian Economy

India’s top economic adviser argues that the government has created one common national market, facilitated creative destruction through IBC, helped SMEs survive COVID, built infrastructure at record speed, and stimulated fast growth. He candidly admits that the Indian state machinery is designed to control thanks to its colonial origins and socialist path, and administrative and judicial reforms are essential to put India on a higher growth trajectory.
 
Author Bio
 
Sanjeev Sanyal is the Principal Economic Advisor to the Government of India.  Until 2015, he was the global strategist and managing director at Deutsche Bank. In 2007, he was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship for his work on urban dynamics. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, and a Senior Fellow of the World Wide Fund for Nature. Environmentalist, martial arts practitioner, and adventure sports enthusiast, this bestselling author’s books include Revolutionaries, Land of the Seven Rivers, The Indian Renaissance, and The Ocean of Churn. In 2014, he received the inaugural International Indian Achievers Award for contributions to Literature. He was educated at Shri Ram College of Commerce and as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford.
Twitter: @sanjeevsanyal
Email: sanjeev.sanyal@gov.in and jyoti.mirani27@gov.in 
 
Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 
 

Rare Story of a Global Indian Manufacturing Success

 
In this episode of FO° Podcasts, Fair Observer’s Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh is joined by Sharad Kumar Saraf, a legend in Indian manufacturing. Saraf braved the license-permit-quota raj of Indian socialism to take on an American giant and emerged as a world leader in his field. He explains how he got started and how India can achieve manufacturing success.
Sharad Kumar Saraf graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, in 1969 when IIT Bombay was churning out talent for American universities. Almost 69% of his classmates left for the US, but Saraf stayed on to achieve a rare and spectacular success in manufacturing in India.
 
Saraf himself had scholarships to two American universities. However, one night he asked himself what was wrong with his country and decided to stay back. Of course, his mother was chuffed. Saraf did not have a clue as to what to do but soon began working for his cousins who manufactured electric motors. Today, the REMI Group is recognized as a pioneer in manufacturing electric and geared motors in India.
 
His relatives packed him off to the German Democratic Republic, better known as East Germany, where Saraf learned the tricks of the trade. He stayed on after work to observe their processes and copied the industrial secrets they had not shared with this young Indian engineer. Saraf did what the Americans did to the British and what the Chinese are doing to the Americans in the never-ending cycle of acquiring technology.
 
An extraordinary entrepreneurial journey
 
Eventually, Saraf and his brother (also an IIT Bombay alumnus) decided to make closures for 200-liter steel drums, which store oil, chemicals and other liquids. Drums have two screwed openings, one two-inch and the other three-quarters-inch. The two brothers took on an American company that monopolized the drum closure market—and won. Today, Technocraft Industries India Limited, the company started by the Saraf brothers in 1972, is the only other market player in the space.
 
Making these screwed closures is complicated. Technocraft Industries’ secretive American competitors shredded their scrap to avoid anyone reverse engineering their product. The Saraf brothers nearly went bankrupt in trying to crack the code for making these closures. They made many mistakes and managed to succeed despite having no resources.
 
Saraf credits his education at IIT Bombay, which taught him and his brother to think outside the box, go deep and never give up. Both brothers plowed profits back into the business. They kept improving their technology and reducing their workforce every year. Efficiency gains helped Technocraft Industries become a world leader by 1990. They were exporting to more than 40 countries.
 
About 135 million steel drums are produced every year. Saraf’s company produces 65 million closures and, unlike their competitors, they do not make their own drums. Therefore, they have no captive market and give their customers a top product as well as many value-added services.
 
Earlier, Technocraft Industries imported its steel. Since 1995, Saraf’s company has been buying all its steel from Jindal Steel Works (JSW). Today, the company has two factories in India and one in China. This factory serves the Chinese market and produces 15 million closures per year. This figure is in addition to the 65 million produced in India.
 
Manufacturing: India v China
 
Because the Saraf brothers are in India, quality control is better, supervision is easier and volumes are higher. In China, manufacturing costs are higher. Power costs more, as does labor. Chinese steel is cheaper but medium, small and micro enterprises (MSME) pack what they produce and do not do quality control. So, Technocraft Industries Limited would have to send eight to ten people to train their suppliers. Now, things are better.
 
The biggest disadvantage in India is the bureaucracy, the red tape and the corruption. Saraf takes the view that corruption in India is far worse than in China. Thankfully, in over ten years, no inspector has ever visited Saraf’s factory in Anhui to ask for a bribe or cause Saraf any grief. In India, the laws are unclear, bureaucrats have far too much discretion and no deadlines when it comes to making decisions. In fact, India’s officials can sit on a file for years. There is no accountability for these officials. Furthermore, goalposts change constantly and decisions of officials are arbitrary. In contrast, Chinese officials make decisions in a time-bound manner. In business, time is money and India’s officials make life very difficult for manufacturers.
 
India’s colonial state was anti-manufacturing and anti-business. Its job was to cut Indian competition off at the knees so that British industry could use India as a captive market. Since independence, the government has tried to industrialize, but officials have become corrupt and want bribes. So, transaction costs have simultaneously gone up and are not accurately measurable. Manufacturers have to show false profits to pay venal officials.
 
Why are Indian bureaucrats anti-business?
 
After independence in 1947, the government turned socialist and made the paternalistic assumption that Indians were ignorant and all sectors needed regulation. This mindset is fallacious because Indians have proven themselves to be an entrepreneurial lot around the world. The license-permit-quota raj hobbled the Indian economy. Till 1991, this shackled the Indian economy. 
 
Officials gave manufacturers a license to manufacture. They set production limits. This penalized efficiency gains. The government was obsessed with controlling the economy. The Aditya Birla Group wanted to produce pulp in India, but the government refused permission, and this led the industrial group to set up its factory in Thailand. Today, the Aditya Birla Group imports pulp from its own factory in Thailand. As a result, India missed out on the multiplier effect of jobs, incomes and wealth.
 
This Kafkaesque system encouraged shady players. For example, the Steel Controller of India gave licenses for steel production. There were such controllers for all sorts of industries. Shady operators got licenses without having factories. This operator could not have used the steel he hypothetically produced because the license had a user condition: the one with a license had to use the steel himself. However, this operator was neither manufacturing nor using steel. Honest manufacturers were forced to buy steel in the black market from this operator, though, because he owned a license. The system was incorrigibly corrupt and horribly inefficient, holding India back for decades.
 
What must the government do?
 
Saraf points to the success of Indians in information technology (IT) and other sectors. In 1998, the IT industry was $40 million and today it is $200 billion, a figure IT pioneer Ashank Desai points to very proudly. Saraf attributes this success to the lack of controls over the IT sector.
 
As a man with dirt under his fingernails, Saraf proposes reforms. He advises the government to incentivize revenue collectors in each district to promote industry. If industry does not increase in their district, then the district officials should suffer. With 766 districts, India should have 600 industry clusters. The government must emulate Germany and create its own Mittelstand, the MSME of that European industrial superpower.
 
Saraf suggests simplifying extremely complicated land laws. Converting land to industrial use is still extremely hard. The government has realized the need for industrialization and brought in schemes like Production Linked Incentive. Yet, things have still not changed at the ground level. For instance, India’s forest laws are crazy, and officials are worse. They have designated land without a single tree as “forest.” This means no manufacturer can start a factory on such so-called forest land.
 
Instead of such insane classification, the government could require manufacturers who cut trees for new factories to plant and maintain 20 trees for every tree they cut down. The Chinese and, especially, the Swiss have this policy. Forest cover in European countries has increased because of incentives to plant trees, not barriers to starting factories.
 
The government must lower transaction costs as well. It must make banking policy simpler. Currently, banks ask for high collateral. This shuts out new entrants. As a result, entry barriers are the biggest obstacle to growth in manufacturing. Saraf remarks that, after a successful entry, life is easy even as compared to China, but the first five years are hell.
 
Saraf is no free-market absolutist though. He believes that there is a case for government intervention. The state has a role to play. India suffers from an extraordinary skill shortage. The country of over 1.4 billion people lacks good engineers and technicians. Currently, the government is paying dole to encourage people to get technical training, but the carrot approach is not working.
 
So, the government must use a stick instead. The government must make it mandatory for industry to employ only certified skilled labor. This would lead to the quality of masons, plumbers and electricians improving. This approach would be cheaper and better. India would produce higher-quality goods, and the economy would grow faster.
 
Sharad Kumar Saraf is an industrialist. He is the founder and chairman of Technocraft Industries India Limited, a major producer of steel hardware and cotton products for export.  Sharaf holds a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. He has chaired the board of governors of IIT Bombay, IIT Jammu, and the Bombay Textile Research Association. He also served as president of the Council of EU Chambers of Commerce in India. A student of history and cultures, he has visited over 50 countries. He is a social activist and has taken part in initiatives including the rejuvenation of Powai Lake, improving cotton cultivation in the Vidarbha region, and technical education and skill development programs.
 
Email: sksaraf@technocraftgroup.com & ps@technocraftgroup.com
 
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"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

Perspective on Entrepreneurship Over the Years in India

In this episode of FO° Podcasts, Fair Observer’s Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh speaks to Kartik Kilachand who has returned to give back to India after much entrepreneurial success in the US. Kartik shines the light on business climate and entrepreneurship over the years and many other aspects of life in India.
Kartik Kilachand's years of entrepreneurship and business acumen are now being put to good use. This alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay made his name in the US in the food and beverage industry and also worked in technology. Kilachand has returned to serve the country he grew up in and is now based in India.
 
In this episode of FO° Podcasts, he gives an intimate perspective on India's economic choices after independence in 1947, India’s IIT experience, and his own entrepreneurial journey. He points out how India has come a long way from the days of Nehruvian socialism but still has a long way to go. 
 
About one million people enter the workforce every year. Many people with higher education, including PhDs, take up low-skilled jobs and struggle to have decent careers. Kilachand believes that India can do much more to drive growth and jobs. Its teeming millions could contribute to national growth with the right policies and investments.
 
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Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

The Revealing Story of the Changing Map of India

 
Since 1954, the internal borders have changed more in India than in the rest of the world. The retired director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, which trains Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers, explains the story of the formation of new states and India’s changing internal borders.
 
Even before independence, linguistic identity mattered to Indians. In fact, the independence struggle became a mass movement because leaders even before Mahatma Gandhi adopted their native tongues to rouse the masses. Gandhi himself ran three newspapers, one in English, another in Hindi, and a third in his native Gujarati.
 
Chopra argues that India’s earliest self-conception is a union of diverse cultures. The British divided the country into 11 provinces for administrative convenience. Linguistic considerations did not matter to them. Of course, there were over 500 princely states as well.
 
In 1947, India inherited nine provinces from the British. The incorporation of princely states by this young country was a feat of extraordinary statesmanship by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. For a while, the country retained the borders of the imperial states until linguistic identity asserted itself.
 
This identity led to new linguistic states. Most recently, the formation of Telangana after splitting up Andhra Pradesh has boosted the demand for smaller states. 
 
The formation of states is a story of the growing democratization of Bharat, as Sanjeev Chopra’s book, We, the People of the States of Bharat. You can buy the book here. 
 
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Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 

What You Need to Know About Start-Ups in G20

Over 90% of start-ups fail. To say they are a risky business is an understatement. For the first time, G20 has put startups on the agenda. India has led that move and Chintan Vaishnav of NITI Aayog—the Indian government’s public policy think tank—discusses startups in India and the G20.
 
This edition of FO° Podcasts examines start-ups. Historically, the US has given birth to this strange beast. Since the 2007-08 crash in Western economies, things have changed. Start-ups are starting to take off in poorer economies, especially India. As chair of the G20 this year, India has put startups on the agenda for the first time. 
 
In emerging markets, start-ups were not always popular. People were afraid to take risks. With economic growth, broader access to technology, and changing demographics, start-ups are on the rise in many G20 countries.
 
India has been a shining example of rising entrepreneurship. Forbes estimates that there are now 100 unicorns in the country. As per Pew Research Center, 40% of India’s population is under 25. This population is more educated and technologically savvy than ever before, producing a huge demand for goods and services. Naturally, entrepreneurs are emerging to serve this demand.
 
Vaishnav takes the view that entrepreneurship is just getting started in India and many other G20 countries and start-ups have a long way to go. He explains what makes a healthy start-up ecosystem possible, the national and international forces that influence such an ecosystem, and how it can be a driving force for economic and social good.
 
Vaishnav also outlines why India has placed start-ups front and center of the G20 agenda.
 
Author Bio
 
Chintan Vaishnav is a socio-technologist, an engineer trained to design and build large-scale systems that possess both human as well as technological complexities. Presently, he serves as the Mission Director for the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), a flagship initiative of the government of India under the auspices of the NITI Aayog. Chintan is on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his present assignment. As a teacher, innovator, and entrepreneur, he has split his time between teaching and research at MIT, and living and working with rural communities in India to build solutions that improve living conditions despite resource constraints.
 
Photo: https://aim.gov.in/chintan-vaishnav.php
Email: chintan.vaishnav@gov.in
Social Media:
- Linkedin
- Twitter
 
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Credits: 
"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 
 
[Matthew Knudson produced this podcast.]