The Financial Times of London carried a full length feature story (February 6 and 7) on how the Eurofighter Typhoon lost the bid to the French-made Rafale in a contest that has lasted over five years and will cost between $10 billion and $20 billion over the life of the project.  I am quoted in the story as well as in a similar story that appeared in Aviation Week.   FT requires registration for you to view the entire story, entitled “A Dogfight Over Delhi”. The story was also repeated in the Toronto Globe & Mail, click here to read it

…They overlooked Indian misgivings about security of supply for an aircraft built by four countries across a continent in financial turmoil and amid worries about the aircraft’s radar capabilities. “The upside is that Eurofighter delivers you four countries as strategic partners,” says Douglas Barrie of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, but “the down side is they have to negotiate with each other before they negotiate with you”.

. . .

They also underestimated the government-to-government nature of India’s arms dealings; its deep-seated fears over its energy vulnerabilities; and its hunt for a bargain. “Patience is a key aspect of doing business in India, as is price,” says Gunjan Bagla of California-based Amritt Inc, an advisory service. “The Indian approach is that so long as a product meets the minimum threshold of performance, then it seeks the best value for money. This should come as no surprise.”

About the same time Aviation Week carried a headline on its website on February 6, “Patient Dassault Set To Win MMRCA” on the same subject (and printed it on Page 46 as Viva Le MMRCA” I was quoted as below in this story.

But while it is up for debate whether India would have gained more strategically if it chose U.S. fighters, for instance, a Rafale deal at the least consolidates an old and important relationship. “The decision will definitely strengthen France’s relations with India,” says Ajey Lele, who works with the New Delhi-based Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses.

“It would be wise for American OEMs to tone down their typical pitch of technological superiority, which the Indian buyers are already aware of and respect,” says Gunjan Bagla, head of defense and aerospace at California-based management advisory company Amritt. “Hammering it further can be perceived in India as ‘American arrogance’ and does not help to win sales. India’s ministry of defense is not always dazzled with the ‘best’ technology; rather, it wants to specify a certain minimum threshold of performance. Exceeding the technical minimum does not confer advantage.”

Former Congressman Dr. Tim Roemer is returning to the USA from his two years as the US Ambassador to India. Replacing him in New Delhi will be Los Angeles native and bow-tie wearing Dr. A. Peter Burleigh.  A distinguished career U.S. Foreign Service officer who served as Ambassador and Deputy Representative of the United States to the United Nations before he retired after 33 years of service in August 2000, Burleigh needs to be approved by the Senate.  Prior to his U.N. post, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Republic of Maldives (1995-1997).

Dr. Peter Burleigh, new US Ambassador-designate

Ambassador Burleigh held a number of senior positions at the State Department and served in United States embassies in Nepal, Bahrain, and India, as well as Sri Lanka.

Ambassador Burleigh received his undergraduate degree from Colgate University, served in the Peace Corps (1963-1965) in Nepal, doing community development work in the far west of that country, and spent a year on a Fulbright scholarship in Nepal.  Ambassador Burleigh speaks Bengali and Hindi. He is the first US Ambassador to India to be fluent in the language.  He lived Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a number of years and  served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Miami. He is also one of the first open gay members of the US diplomatic corps; some in India may find that controversial in a country that technically outlaws homosexuality, based on Victorian British era laws. Burleigh was posted in New Delhi from April to July 2009 as charge d’affairs in the US Embassy New Delhi.

At Osmania University, Hyderabad, India in 2009

What this means

The first US ambassador to have considerable South Asia experience and certainly the first to speak Hindi will be an asset. But some may argue that his lack of recent prominence means that India is fading in importance to the Obama administration. I am reluctant to draw that conclusion, let us give Amb Burleigh a few months to engage in his role and then judge how it goes.

The world’s second largest maker of blank CDs and DVDs is an Indian company named Moser Baer; it has recently diversified into selling (and some instances producing) movies and also launched a solar photo-voltaic business.  Located near New Delhi the company is venture and private equity funded.

Its unit, Moser Baer Clean Energy Ltd,  has just commissioned the country’s largest solar plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The 5 megawatt, $20 million plant uses amorphous silicon Thin Film technology, best suited to the Indian climatic conditions, and is connected to the 110 KVA local grid. The project was awarded by the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency, a state entity  and is being implemented under the Generation Based Incentive scheme of the India’s Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.

India hopes to develop 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020 but the largest plants operating so far were only 2-3 megawatt capacity.  Solar and wind energy are still subsidized to some extent by public funding.

Leon Panetta, Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)  was in India for nearly a week during which he met India’s Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and senior officials ahead of the visit of American President Barack Obama next month.  He was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador Timothy J.  Roemer to the North Block offices of the Home Ministry.

CIA Chief Leon Panetta leaves North Block after meeting

Panetta held a series of meetings with senior Indian government officials including Union Home secretary G.K. Pillai also were seen as a platform to further cement sharing of intelligence in tackling terrorism. During his meetings, including with his Indian counterpart Research and Analysis (RAW)  Chief  K.C. Verma and Intelligence Bureau head Rajiv Mathur, Panetta discussed co-operation between the two countries especially in the field of counter-terrorism and sharing intelligence.

This is the first high-profile visit by any American intelligence official after a team of the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) had questioned alleged Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley in May in Chicago.  Mr. Panetta came from Islamabad where he had held discussions with Pakistani leaders.