Posts from — May 2009

Delhi University, Pune University and five Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are listed among the Top 100 universities in Asia as ranked by the latest QS Survey. The IITs are Bombay, Kanpur, Delhi, Madras and Roorkee.  The two other IITs were ranked between 101 and 200, Kharagpur and Guwahati as was the University of Calcutta.

Dr. Manmohan Singh  of the Indian National Congress party was sworn in as India’s Prime Minister today, after the general election results of last week. Included in his cabinet were returning ministers Pranab Mukherjee (Foreign Minister), Sharad Pawar (member of alliance party NCP), A K Antony (former Defense Minister) and P Chidambaram (most recently Home Minister).

New entrants in the nineteen member cabinet included S M Krishna, Ms. Mamata Banerjee (of the West Bengal based Trinamool Congress), Ghulam Nabi Azad, Veerappa Moily and C P Joshi. Others are Sushilkumar Shinde, S Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath (former Commerce Minister) , Vyalar Ravi, Meira Kumar, Murli Deora, Kapil Sibal, Ms. Ambika Soni, B K Handique, and Anand Sharma are also among those inducted into the Cabinet.

The council of ministers in India is usually larger than 50, including junior ministers. Media reports indicate that the expansion will occur on Tuesday. Congress Party leader, Salman Khurshid and National Conference President Farooq Abdullah will be among about two dozen who may be inducted. Other reports indicate that returning ministers may include Vilas Muttemwar and Mukul Wasnik.

While the congress party had 206 seats of its own in the  Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament), its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition won 262 seats in the 543-member national parliament, just 10 short of the 272 needed for a working majority. The alliance quickly garnered pledges of support from independents and others to take its voting strength to 322.

One of the most luxurious hotels in central New Delhi is the The Imperial.  Richard Branson had just pitched Virgin Media in the side lawn the previous night.  Dr. Susan Hockfeld, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was visiting along with a bevy of her top Deans. MIT, like many top private universities is eager to expand its relationship with India and with the Indian government. I was invited to attend a day long event there by my colleague, who is an MIT alum resident in India. The Chief Guest was to be the influential former Rhodes Scholar and top government official.

My colleagues sat in the back of the large banquet room because we need to sneak out early.  Without any intros or fanfare, a matter-of-fact Sikh gentleman walked up to the mike and began speaking. about the challenges of higher education in India. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that the man at the mike was the powerful Chairman of India’s Planning Commission himself, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia. No fawning sidekicks, not even an intro by the organizer, nothing. Just dive right it to the matter at hand.

In a frank and interactive session he shared the concerns are worries around higher education and research in India’s democracy.  My colleague and I ended up staying for his entire session and the talk by Dr. Hockfeld.  Ahluwalia was one of the trio (along with Dr. Manmohan Singh and PC Chidambaram) who wrote the blueprint of the radical reform and liberalization of the Indian economy in July 1991.

There are reports today in India’s media that Montek (as the media calls him) may be the next Finance Minister in the new Cabinet to be announced shortly. The role was held by PC Chidambaram earlier but after the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Chidambaram had to take charge of the “Home Ministry” (think of it as Homeland Security, plus and one of the top posts in the Cabinet).  Keep your fingers crossed, this developement could be quite good for India and for those who trade with India.

Another report highlighted billionaire Anil Ambani’s visit to Montek’s former office at Yojana Bhavan (Planning House). The Journal pointed out that Montek has resigned from the Planning Commission; but failed to mention that it is customary in India for the entire Planning Commission, and even the Prime Minister and his cabinet to resign after general elections; this clears the way for a “new” government, even if it the old government coming back to power.

Dr. Manmohan Singh’s United Progress Alliance (UPA) won 206 seats in India’s lower house of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and along  and their “fourth front” allies have a commanding 285 seat majority in the 543 member body. The major constituent of the UPA is the Indian National Congress and its candidates did remarkably well at the expense of the Communists and their allies (who dropped from 60 seats to 24) and the National Democratic Alliance, let by the Bharitya Janata Party (BJP), which dropped from 189 seats in 2004 to 161.  Until 2004, the BJP controlled the government.

Businessmen in India were universally delighted with the results.  IIT Alumnus and head of ITC, Ltd (hotels, tobacco, fishing)  Yogi Deveshwar looked forward to the return of double-digit growth in the economy.  Investment manager Sameer Arora, of Helios Capital, said that wiping out the left parties alone was “worth an addition of 500 points to the Sensex” (Sensex is the popular stock market index in India similar to the Dow in the USA).

Infosys Co-chairman Nandan Nilekani (and author of Imagining India)   was relieved at the margin of victory: “This is the first time in many years that a government would not face any ideological barrier.”  Congress supporter and Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said: “India has much to cheer about finally.”

The exuberance and gushing are great, but as I said in my book (Doing Business in 21st Century India) , India is an elephant, not a tiger.  Governing without the  thorn of the left parties will be easier. But the size of the victory may well embolden internal power struggles within the Indian National Congress. Already Dr. Singh is talking about bringing in the young (by Indian standard) Nehru-Gandhi scion, Rahul Gandhi, into the cabinet. Those whom he displaces are likely to want outlets for their ambitions.   Reform architect PC Chidambaram (Harvard MBA and former Finance Minister) had a close call when it seemed he might have lost his re-election  bid; a recount showed he had won.

The son of former BJP Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh was a contestant from the Barmer constituency. Manvendra Singh lost to the Indian National Congress candidate Harsh Chaudhary.  And so it was in 19 of 25 parliamentary seats in the northwestern desert state of Rajasthan where the erstshile ruling Bhartiya Janata Party party was dislodged in 2008 assembly elections.  In 2004 Congress had won only four parliament seats from Rajasthan.